If Cheri O’Brien ever decided to remove thieves and squatters from her Albert Street neighborhood, she could almost certainly get the job done faster and more thoroughly than any of the candidates vying to represent her as Ward councilors 2. Half a century ago, O’Brien was a tough US Marine skilled in hand-to-hand combat who served as a military data processor. Last week she celebrated her 76th birthday. Also last week, O’Brien attended a meet and greet for Ward 2 councilor candidates at the James L. McIntyre Centennial Library. Her neighborhood is not what it used to be. For the past few months he has been on a mission to clean it up. When the packed library meeting opened for questions, O’Brien was first in line. What the candidates thought about outsourcing the police or private security to old-fashioned foot patrols, he wanted to know. “I think the police presence, foot patrols, would be a deterrent,” he said. “Maybe use some of the downtown plaza money for that?” O’Brien added. “That would be great, because I’m not going to that square unless there’s police there,” replied candidate Dennis Murphy. Murphy said Sault Ste. Marie doesn’t have a large enough police force to do foot patrols, but he advocated putting private security on the sidewalks. Acting Comm. Luke Dufour, who also chairs the District of Sault Ste. Marie Social Services Administration Board, said police patrols are important, especially downtown. “One of the main ways you could free up a lot of police officers is to dismantle the quarter system,” Dufour said. “All policing across the city is not being developed in any kind of dynamic model.” “It grows based on just geography. So you can have two cops in the north end of town sometimes, checking yards and things like that. Meanwhile, we have a lot of problems downtown.” “So if we can ever change the precinct model and the police union contract, that will allow us to have a lot more, full, dynamic patrols downtown.” “I think patrols are important, they’re deterrents,” Dufour said. “But we also know that they don’t prevent crime. Because when the patrols go away, people come back.” Another candidate, Nick Armstrong, said the reasons for downtown crime needed to be known before more police resources were deployed in the area. Acting Comm. Lisa Vezo-Allen said if more officers are prioritized, that will be reflected in the police services board’s budget, which must then be approved by city council. Meanwhile, a similar meet and greet session was held for the Ward 1 candidates. Here are some highlights of Ward 1:
Sonny Spina asked the city to develop a tourism master plan William McPhee said we need a local recycling plant to handle a wider range of plastics Sandra Hollingsworth pointed out that she was the only city council member who fought to keep the budget increase under 4.1 percent Brent Derochie talked about affordable construction of stable and quality housing Johnathan Lalonde discussed the need for change and for a safe and affordable city
