RESTORE COOTES

This story isn't about Cootes - but a nearby natural area - the Ancaster Councillor exhibits a less than novel argument, that old "Drive-Thru Nature" one where car access trumps environmental integrity. If you don't know this area, it is certainly just barely a road, and a very muddy rutted almost-road at that. Conservation Authority puts Dundas Valley road closure bid on hold Richard Leitner, Dundas Star News Staff, Published on Mar 13, 2009 The Hamilton Conservation Authority is delaying a request to close and acquire a 1.4- kilometre stretch of a Dundas Valley road to allow for discussions with the city on how to limit access by four-wheel-drive trucks, dumpers and bush partiers. Directors agreed to hold off on a bid to close the “badly rutted” dirt track on Martin Road after Ancaster Councillor Lloyd Ferguson implored them to consider other solutions that will maintain it as a public right-of- way. He suggested the road might be upgraded to allow one-way traffic ...

Heritage committee wants Desjardins Canal designated historical Kevin Werner, Dundas Star News Staff Published on Mar 06, 2009 Hamilton’s heritage committee has asked staff to consider designating the Desjardins Canal under the Ontario Heritage Act. “This is a landscape of concern,” said Francis Thorp-Neufield, the committee’s Dundas representative. “It was important to the (community’s) history. I think it is worth it.” Ms. Thorp-Neufield introduced the motion to have the landscape designated at the committee’s meeting last week. She said later the Desjardins Canal needs to be protected because of its historical importance the surrounding community. “This is for history reasons and to preserve the integrity of the landscape,” she said. When asked if the designation was in response to a proposal to build a storage facility in the area, she dismissed the idea. “It has nothing to do with the storage proposal,” she said. “There are buildings and landscapes in Dundas that we, as a communit...

Jacob Binkley (1806-67), great grandson of Marx [Binkley], built the handsome stone house that still stands at 54 Sanders Blvd at the head of a ravine. The house was completed in 1847 and named Lakelet Vale, as it had a little spring-fed lake at the rear. Binkley's Pond, as it was known, was used for skating, fishing, and good times. It is now the Zone 6 parking lot at McMaster University on the west side of Cootes Drive. Loreen Jerome, The Way We Were "The House that Jacob Built" Ainslie Wood/Westdale Community Association of Resident Homeowners Inc. (AWWCA) http://www.awwca.ca/articles/ Skater's on Binkley's Pond circa 1917, now a McMaster parking lot