This morning I received the following emailed comment:
Good Morning Evelyn,
The next retort you receive from Barry, give him the rest of the reasons we want no part of becoming mixed into Newmarket. They have mismanaged their finances so badly that less than 4 years ago they were all but broke. No Capital Reserves. No DC Bylaws and they have let themselves become built out without any chance of establishing a more stable and predictable industrial commercial tax base.
All Barry needs to do is take a drive through Newmarket to see how poorly planned their Town is, the degraded condition of their parks and sports fields and the many conflicts with residential and commercial development , not to mention the absolute gridlock that their road system offers.
Unfortunately Barry is not privy to some of the things that are known, like the fact that they are quite willing to throw millions of dollars at consultants to do the work that staff do for a fraction of the cost. The fact that they have huge loans and tax payers money owing on lands that should have been convey to the municipality for free, just like in Aurora.
Barry has no Idea how this good hamlet north of us has been managed over the years thanks to their very astute politicians and staff. I'm sure these few examples are but the tip of the iceberg in their sea of financial oblivion, and I'm sure we are a carrot in their eye with our history of excellence when it comes to our record of managing the public purse. Oh and don’t forget to add the fact that they are doing everything they can to continue their sprawl in search of the almighty dollar by trying to annex land not rightfully theirs from their next door neighbour to the north in an attempt to bail themselves out .
Perhaps Barry might change his tune if he really paid attention and researched his little pipe dream about how rosy our future would be in the Town of Newaurora
This is getting good!
ReplyDeletePersonally, I'm not that impressed with Newmarket either nor did I suggest we merge only with them. I suggested ALL six smaller municipalities amalgamate; Newmarket and Aurora would be but two of the six wards. There's nothing that says city affairs would be conducted a la Newmarket. There's also nothing that says Aurora won't be a good example for other wards. The whole point I'm making is that maybe it's time people started talking of the possibility. Given the growth of the region I'm of the opinion it would actually be a logical "next step". By all means, let's hear about the pros and cons but hopefully we can do better then a tiresome "Aurora is better then Newmarket" slagging match.
Keep those comments and ideas coming!