"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

Saturday 1 March 2014

Gremlins and Goblins get to spend in the Shadows



The Culture Centre is independent of the town. The purpose is for decision to be made outside of politics that  allow fees to be charged that will ensure self-sufficiency of the operation .

It's the same principle that supports Arena Management  Boards.

But now we see how it can be corrupted.

The board  recruits from the community  to  fill vacancies.  Applications are solicited.
The board, makes the selection.

Council has no  role. Public funds  are handed over to people we know nothing about.

The   Historical Society has  adopted the same practise. Nominations used to be accepted from the floor. They stopped that when Chris Watts  indicated his  interest in contributing .

A bylaw was passed  allowing board members to solicit applications and make the
selection , bypassing  society membership.

Think about that .John McIntyre and William Albino , proponents of the crazy,cockamamie,
Heritage Park Theme  are now  President and Vice President of the Society.

They get to select the executive board.

I heard society membership are sick and tired of being used as a political football. They just want to
be members of a group with a shared interest .

They should listen to Bob McRoberts. Let the thing die and be re-born in a mutually acceptable format. He speaks true.

Council has approved handing over $70,000 of your taxes to this pair and whatever unknowns they have selected to join them .

Last night, I heard the Farmer's Market Executive has adopted the same procedure.That's another outfit that likes to mix it . The town provides space and resources and they get to exclude people who might not fit  the clique.

On Wednesday night I heard Well Street School condo project is showing  no signs of progress.

People have  entered into purchase agreements and can't get their money back.

In retrospect, the town should probably have made the case for that property to come back to us
at a nominal fee.

It was a town asset. It continued  as a school by  an agreement allowing the park to be used as playground  and the street to be closed while school  in session

We should have made the case for a building , certified to be no longer safe , to be returned to  the
municipality  at a nominal sum.

We could have done what should have been done and demolished it.

The property would have provided a permanent location for a  Farmer's Market and off site parking
for the library and Church Street School.

Instead of  moving forward relentlessly , like a juggernaut , to  provide   " an exceptional quality of  life " as  called for in the  cast -in -stone Strategic Plan, we could just  put our minds to taking care  of obvious everyday problems created by past  neglect, oversight and  languid  Laissez-faire.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

The Mayor keeps going on about partnerships. There was gong to be a partnership with the Fab Labs and partnership with a major university to make us a university town, dontcha know ?
In business, partnerships work when both parties contribute and benefit. So far, those of this Council and the one before have been lop-sided. Aurora residents pony up properties & finance. Those on the other side of the arrangements contribute a lot of fancy rhetoric but no off-setting impact of the bottom line.
We kind of lost sight of Aurora's real needs when we catered to the wants of an over-lapping few.

Anonymous said...

The completed condos on Yonge are so popular that they are not even reaching the market when someone wants to move. There is a waiting list because that project was done well and had zip to do with the town.

Anonymous said...

There was an earlier comment that this “improve the quality of life” motto is the key to fund these types of schemes. I hear it with many “not-for-profit” and “charitable” organizations. I think it started in the health-care industry, and now ever politician, political party and government agency is using it. How do we get this motto removed? I think that if we get rid of this motto we’d probably have a zero tax increase next year.

Anonymous said...


What's happening with the Kaitlin Group's CENTRO condominium. It seems like two years ago that they started excavation and now there's still nothing but a big ugly hole in the ground.

Someone previously asked why that ancient blockhouse that would have formed a complete sweep along Yonge Street for this CENTRO was not purchased. Is this a possible insider's story?

So far as the Wells Street School building is concerned, who actually owns it? What sort of shell game are they playing? Are there reasonable explanations for the delays or is this yet another real estate scam.

I know there are many projects that take place in Aurora that you never hear about, because they are handled by professionals who are able to bring the job in on time and within, or even under budget.

Why can't the town do this with its projects. Why do many town-involved undertakings end up like a rat's nest, with just a few rabid rats threatening the people?

Anonymous said...

Buyer Beware

Anonymous said...

14:59
If I had to make a guess on the CENTRO condos, I'd go for a problem with the soil that impeded the building or the lack of interest from potential purchasers. Construction has taken a beating over the past years & the firms are trying only to build where they can see an obvious market.

Anonymous said...


In breaking news from Alberta to Ottawa the following:

Premier Alison Redford's call upon a provincial government jet to fly her and her daughter home last spring from a Palm Springs vacation so she could attend the official memorial service for the late Ralph Kline, at a cost of $9200, is renewing accusations of extravagant travel. The premier is claiming there were no commercial alternatives, although some of these have surfaced.

It makes one proud to be a resident of Aurora, where the grand scandal claimed by Clr. Ballard against the mayor, turned out to have been the purchase and serving of beer to potential investors, at a fully documented cost of some $50.

It's a good thing our town does not have its own corporate jet. Just imagine the stories this might originate.

Late this afternoon Prime Minister Harper was summoning key cabinet ministers to discuss the quickly evolving crisis in Ukraine. The west is pleading for restraint while Kiev warns of all-out war now that Russia has invaded the Crimea.

President Putin won his parliament's approval earlier today to invade Ukraine, where his troops have apparently already seized strategic points on the Crimean peninsula.

I will now quote from the Globe and Mail:

"In response to the very serious developments today, the Prime Minister is convening a meeting of key Cabinet Ministers later this afternoon to discuss the situation in Ukraine," Jason MacDonald, the Prime Minister's spokesman, said Saturday afternoon. "The Prime Minister is following the situation closely and is being briefed regularly by senior officials."

Mr. MacDonald added the Prime Minister's Office would release a statement following the meeting, though it remains unclear what time the ministers will gather."

Pardon me for wondering just a wee little bit - what is our Prime Minister and key Cabinet Ministers going to do, going to say? We will, of course, utter our usual tsk tsk this has become de rigeur. Will we threaten Russia with sanctions? What might some of these be - vodka, Olympic memorabilia?

I just hope that Harper doesn't make an ass of himself and thereby give Canada a bigger black eye than the one it already has in international affairs. He has become our George W.

Anonymous said...


It really makes me cry when I think about Canada's contribution during the two world wars, and then read the concluding short paragraph in an article by Doug Saunders in today's Globe and Mail:

"This is the consequence of a military policy that doesn't add up: By trying to have both more soldiers and more new equipment while squeezing the budget, by wanting a do-anything military on the cheap, Canada ends up disappearing from the world."

This is a disgrace.

Anonymous said...

I am thinking maybe you should pick a day or so a week- & not tell us when - to give some of us laggards time to catch up. Just to let your blog stew ?

Resident said...

On the topic of the ugly little lot on Yonge St. next to the Centro condos. That lot is 50' deep, which makes it essentially useless by itself.

Anonymous said...

Isn't there something about a certain percentage of condo units have to be sold before construction?

Also, I think I read that the Centro development wanted to reduce the number of bigger units for more with fewer bedrooms.