"Cowardice asks the question...is it safe? Expediency asks the question...is it politic? Vanity asks the question...is it popular? But conscience asks the question...is it right? And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular but one must take it because it is right." ~Dr. Martin Luther King

Thursday 9 September 2010

Meetings and Bad Cess to us

Three this week. Two on Tuesday. I left the chamber at ten minutes past eleven that night. Councillor Gaertner was solemnly engaged with the usual constant quest for information. There was no sign of an end to it. After seven years you get a sense.

The first meeting started at 5.30pm.and ended at 7pm.Two items were on the agenda. Union negotiations and disposition of the former hydro property.

We have decided to lease the hydro building to the National Defence Department and we are spending $50.000 to install a security system for our new tenant

The rent will be $131.ks a year with a twenty year lease.

The hydro building is architect designed, the facilities and property are probably worth a couple of million dollars. It was built by Aurora Hydro.

Before Power stream vacated , there were twenty seven employees in the building. $70ks a year in potential assessment revenue.. It was an asset of considerable value and should have been sold at the same time as the hydro corporation

Two million additional dollars would have been added to the hydro reserve and earning a comfortable rate of interest all this time.

There was a election. Candidate Nigel Keane said we should use it as a youth centre. It became an election issue.

Four years later, on the eve of a new election, a decision has finally been made.

In my judgement, without the least iota of benefit to the municipality.

It was that decision the Mayor desperately wanted to exclude me from last Tuesday.

The Mayor is pleased with the deal . Her Worship has apparently had discussions with the military and "the kiddies" will be re-located from wherever they are, to a building which should have realised two million dollars to municipal coffers, produced a a minimum of $70.ks in annual tax revenues and twenty seven desperately needed new jobs in Aurora.

The building is described as a liability in the CAO's report .

We have become landlords once again.

It is not our role.

Even the Province says it's not a municipal role to own real estate surplus to our needs.

If you are looking for logic....don't even think about it.

1 comment:

Darryl Moore said...

Hello Evelyn,

Usually I would agree with you regarding the Hydro building, and you might be right. However, I also know that Aurora is projected to grow by about 40% over the next 20 years. The town will need more land and buildings as it grows.

Is it really logical to sell a useful building like this now, only to have to buy it (or another similar building) back at a higher price a few years from now?

There is also no guarantee you would get any industrial usage from that building if you did sell it, nor be able to replace the 27 lost jobs. This way at least the Town gets to keep a good building which they will certainly be able to make good use of in the future.