Mayor takes another step in Buy American battle

North Bay Mayor Victor Fedeli has launched another phase in the =E2=80=98Buy American=E2=80=99 battle. A Letter to the Editor has bee n sent to every (English) newspaper in the Country asking citizens to con tact their local mayor to join the battle.

Want to know how you can help?

Mayors of ALL Canadian cities: please join North Bay in the 'Buy American' provision battle. Our strategy of talking directly to U.S. Mayors in cities where we made major purchases, is really working.

We encourage you to join this fight. It's simple: take our letter and make it your own. Open up the SAMPLE lett er and wherever you see red text, put your specifics in. It will require a little bit of work, but it is really bringing in results.

40% of stim ulus money 'already out the door.'

The $4-billion Infrastructure Stimulus Fund, which requires matching cash from provincial and municipal governments, has approved 3,2 26 projects across the country. The Government of Canada says this means 40% of projects have already started, and 97% of the available funds are spoken for.

We're interested in 'on the ground' stories - how is progres s in YOUR community? Share your succ ess stories (and horror stories) and we'll recap the highlights next month.

American's Bicker - Is the Stimulus Working?

Our largest neighbour is bickering over infrastructure stimu lus money, with a twist. Rather than Republican's critiquing US Presiden t Barack Obama, this time the sniping comes from his fellow Democrats. T he Chair of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, Democrat Lar ry Oberstar, says Obama is "mas sively uninformed" about the concept.

Calgary deals with 'traffic chaos' due to watermain break

Calgary has one of the lowest watermain break rates in North America (want to know why? We featured an interview w ith City of Calgary engineer Roy Brander.)

But alas - this older watermain was cast i ron, and it finally let go. The city's aggressive water main replace ment program has cut breaks by about 75 per cent, from an average 1,500 m ain breaks per year in the 1980s to about 400 per year now.

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Let's chat. I can be reached at:

Veso Sobot, P. Eng.
Ipex Management Inc
(905) 795-6113
vessob@ipex ;na.com