Hamilton Veterans Committee for June 2016 – TPR Hamilton | Hamilton's Civic Affairs News Site

June 25, 2016
The Veterans’ Committee – which I participate in as a resource (I served three years) – held its June meeting on Tuesday the 21st.
This was the first meeting with new members for the 2014 – 2018 Council term.
Discussions were mostly housekeeping and orientation in nature, with discussions of note on veterans affairs, parking for persons with veterans license plates, and the future of the two Hamilton decoration days.
City Council was divided on free parking for veterans when they approved it last July – creating a series of exemptions for police officers who served with the United Nations, denying them free parking.
A staff report is expected in September and the Veterans’ Committee plans to try again to have the City adopt a no-administration acceptance of all Veteran’s plates.
The City presently holds two “Decoration Days” each year – one at Woodlawn Cemetery in spring and another at Eastlawn Cemetery in August. The Veteran’s Committee will consider a proposal to focus on one ceremony each year – with heavy promotion and a larger budget to increase public turnout to the tradition which “began in Hamilton and the Niagara Peninsula as a way to mark the sacrifice of Canadian Militia members killed during the Battle of Ridgeway during the Fenian Raids.”