I am always puzzled by average citizens willingness to accept and trust and cite the authority of faceless bureaucracy.
This week has been a roller coaster of similar circumstance.
Tuesday's Council meeting was almost surrealistic. It was over in less than an hour.
One agenda item was a report from The Director of Parks and Recreation.
A Park was re-named in honor of Queen Elizabeth 11 Diamond Jubilee .
Councillor Ballard proposed names of medal recipients awarded for the occasion be displayed also.
Council agreed .
I didn't.
On Tuesday Staff reported ,despite a thorough search, ten recipients could not be traced . One was and declined to have her name posted on a plaque. Two others were familiar.
After lengthy discussion, Council decided to plaque the names of the missing parties anyway.
Turns out the Governor General had sixty-thousand medals minted and distributed.
So the Queen serves sixty years and sixty thousand Canadians get medals.
Ten of whom could not be traced in Aurora.
But will appear on a park plaque anyway.
I didn't vote for it then either.
I called for a number of recorded votes that night. I had the feeling there should be something on the record to prove Tuesday's meeting really took place.
There was little else to commend it.
At Wednesday's Planning Meeting, citizens were assured by staff report that control exercised by the municipality under a District Heritage Designation is minimal. More of a design guideline than anything else.
A resident came forward to tell of his experience.
An architect was directed to design a Carriage Entry for his new home. He felt it would be truly in keeping with vintage character of the neighborhood.
Three times plans were presented and rejected. Finally he asked why.
"Because I don't like it " replied the heritage planner.
If it isn't bad enough to have a restrictive bylaw registered against title of private property, the
extent and quality of control entirely depends on the judgement of whoever has the position of heritage planner.
Some decisions must be made by the Heritage Advisory Committee.
Who, except for two , are not elected .
They are chosen on the basis of a resume they wrote . That nobody checks. For all anybody knows, they could be highly imaginative, medication controlled, escapees from a lunatic asylum.
Or ....They might not be medication controlled but they got the POWA!!!!!
The rest of the week was taken up with the problem of a small engine repair shop operator.
While the Mayor and other high-flyers went about the country waving $11 millions under the noses of snooty academics, town bylaws were busy driving the guy who repairs our lawn mowers,snow-blowers and weed-eaters out of business.
That story is not yet complete so it must keep.
Sunday 27 April 2014
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19 comments:
Just be grateful that 95% of matters coming before Council and its various committees are of what I will call a pip-squeak nature.
And because they are, most councillors are able to express opinions
relating to them.
Anything above $50,000 seems to require the retainer of planners or consultants and councillors soon offer their views concerning things they know little about. And so one sees constant referrals and deferrals back to staff, who often are as ignorant as the elected members.
Just be grateful that Aurora is but a wee municipality with only millions at its disposal.
How frightening it must be at provincial and federal levels where decisions can involve billions, and those staffs and elected officials seem to be equally inadequate to the task.
And so you get cancelled power plants (billions) and fighter jets (tens of billions.)
I have no idea what the qualifications are of those who serve on the Heritage Advisory Committee. The major impact of this group on the greater community seems equal to playing soccer with a hornet's nest.
By-laws in Aurora are a joke. They can be used by neighbours for some cosmetic offence but are not enforced unless someone makes a call. We had 2 on our doorstep over a bit of nonsense on a lovely day & figured that they had nothing better to do. It took 2 ?
I knew of this lady that was running some art classes in her home. Her driveway was full of cars on her driveway and had 2 cars legally parked on the street one day a week for 2 hrs. She had a visit from Bylaw wanting to look into her home and check on the premise. She just handed them a copy of her business license and closed the door. She hadn't heard from them again. She figured it was her neighbor that called because she cut a branch off their tree that was on top of her roof.
I knew one of the Bylaw officers in Aurora who retired a number of years back. He was really mostly a go between the complainer and the party that was allegedly the offender, and was always resolved with some compromise. There was a time when neighbors were able to resolve their differences on their own. Shame those times are gone.
You are going to be accused of interference & micro-managing. It seems to be necessary that someone do it because it is not being done -there is no captain at the helm from the Council table or staff.
When by-laws are onerous or just plain stupid, residents simply circumvent them. I gave up after watching Cllrs Humfryes and Gaertner turn themselves inside out trying to prove that Mr K's trees were somehow part of the town's heritage. There is all sorts of tree removal going on in my neighbourhood now - partly because of the ice storm but only a bit of it- and no one has applied for any permission. The only difference is that the wood is no longer left at the end of driveways for people to take home for free firewood.
Some tree-nut might call the town and snitch.
If the tree is taken down without a permit, what would the bylaw or the neighbour be able to do about that!? What is done is done!
14:13
We have been here for the better part of 20 years. And only went once with a group of neighbours to get a stop-sign that was essential. I cannot understand why so many petty squabbles are allowed to escalate into major stand-offs.
Wasn't there a problem with a name on the Wr Memorial ?
Item 4 on the Agenda for Tuesday's GC meeting is in connection with replacing 125 trees lost due to the ice storm for a total cost of $88,000.
This works out to $704 per tree.
Is this correct?
What size are these trees?
Your story is fascinating. Please try to let us know how you do. And if we can help.
Otherwise, Southlake had a great day, the event for little kids was a nice touch and I hope you got some sun on your nose.
Since writing you a couple of hours ago regarding replacement trees, I have done a bit of research.
Stevens Large Tree Sales on the Bethesda Road north of Stouffville shows on their price list dated April 1, 2014, their recommendation for trees for street planting, namely a Norway Maple.
A three inch diameter is shown at $280 each. Delivery using a 42" tree spade for 5 or more is $120 per tree with a surcharge of 4% per tree for each kilometre from their tree farm over 15 km. The distance is approximately 23 km to Wellington Street. The surcharge would then be 32% or about $90 per tree.
For an order of 125 trees I am certain that the delivery charge and distance surcharge could probably be negotiated downward.
Planting charge includes triple mix soil, mulch and staking when necessary.
Even if there were no reduction in cost possible the price per tree, delivered, with surcharge, and planted would be $490. HST would be another $64 for a total of $554, $150 less per tree than the figure used on the GC Agenda.
A saving of $18,750 or just over 20%.
I would like to see the basis for the figures in report PR14-017.
If the town's estimating is typically high by 20%, what might our annual saving be and with what impact on property taxes?
18:05
Cllrs Gaertner, Humfryes &, I think, Gallo would require that a hefty fine be paid.
No one ever seems to care about the trees that are cleared for new sub-divisions, or the farm land that is removed. You know farmer's crops and anything that grows green helps clean the air too. Everyone seems to get hung up on the issues of 1 or 2 trees here or there in Aurora while the rest of Aurora is laid waste to urbanization, asphalt, concrete and oh, yes replanted trees and 20x20 grass backyards. All in environmentally friendly Aurora. What a joke when these subdivisions are named after "trails" and such. The Aurora Cultural Centre will have to run an exhibit on what life use to be like in Aurora when there were meadows, forests, farmers' fields etc. We'll soon be all going to the Toronto Zoo to see Canadian farm animals. I rant, it's Monday.
21:42
Norway Maples are considered noxious weeds in the Landscape community. They grow fast, spread huge number of keys and are not pretty.
13:01
Those are the ones that Aurora plans to purchase & plant. See Agenda for tomorrow
How could the people who received those awards vanish so quickly? I am assuming they were named for a reason in the first place. Did anyone just do an internet search ? Or is that a bad question ?
14:31
Here is one link (of many)
http://www.ecosystemgardening.com/norway-maple-makes-most-hated-plants-list.html
I hope that councillor Buck or some other on council have the cajones to ask why we continue to make the same mistakes.
8:09
The excuse will be that they grow fast.
But - they are very messy & the price indicates we are getting hosed.
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