Odds & Sods

Now that some of the major chunks of starting out a campaign are behind me, I'm tying up some loose ends.

I made a dedicated campaign Facebook page so that I don't have to annoy my non-Hamilton friends with all my election noise. Please "like" it here: www.facebook.com/MarcRisdale2014. As of this writing, I'm already sitting pretty at 16 likes.

Oh, and I topped 50 Twitter followers today too. You can find me at @risdale4dundas. It's been fun; I even got Jian Ghomeshi to reply to one of my World Cup tweets!

I think I'm getting the hang of this social media business...

We (the Hamilton Cycling Club) also got the final go-ahead from the Hamilton Conservation Authority to install our pump track at Christie Lake Conservation Area. If you don't know what a pump track is, don't worry, you're not alone but trust me, it will be awesome!

This is something we've been working on with the HCA for almost three years now and it should use up the last bit of the Trillium capital grant money we had. This is a great partnership that just keeps getting stronger.

Kim and I also took some time out for a lunch date and headed on down to the just-opened Il Fiasco, Dundas' newest restaurant. We shared carpaccio and fritters to start and a potato pizza. It was great and the service was excellent.

We ran into a couple of neighbours there and had a good chat with the owner. You'd think it would be a relatively simple task to open a new restaurant in a spot that was previously a restaurant. In Hamilton, it seems, you'd be wrong.

I've heard this sort of complaint before from all sorts of small business owners around town. Food for thought, so to speak.

Finally last night, I attended an information session hosted by Environment Hamilton and Hamilton Association for Renewable Energy regarding local improvement charges. "LICs are long-term, low interest loans backed by the City. [...] LICs are currently used by Hamilton homeowners for limited property improvements. We want to extend LICs to improve your home comfort and reduce your energy bills."

Managed properly, this sounds like a really great idea. Learn more here: www.ehsavesenergy.wordpress.com.

Coming Up

Campaigning takes a back seat tonight as I don my Hamilton Cycling Club hat to run our bi-monthly Sydenham Hill Climb time trial. Hope the weather holds!