A Reader Asks

Who originally owned the land that was donated to become the
'Cenotaph".

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The land was purchased from th he Wood's family .
.
The question reminds me .....it is believed there are graves of settlers on the site.

In the earliest days, there were no churches or burial grounds.

If my files were organized properly. I could put my hands on the history.

Jackie Stewart our former museum curator provided it to me when the vet was making his bid.

I already knew some of it but Jackie provided documentation.

It was one of the services Jackie provided as well as being curator of the museum collection.

Hosting class visits at the museum from local schools and throughout the summer and history summer camps were provided by Jackie at the Church Street School.

We had that service for almost thirty years.The grant we provided to the Historical Society helped pay the salary and we received ample value in return.

Jackie researched history of old homes to be designated for the planning department before we had a heritage planner on the payroll.

We still pay the grant but the Historical Society is of the opinion the curator is their employee
and attached to the Hilary House which is not our facility. So, it is not at all clear what services wer are entitled to expect.

If anyone knew of artifacts becoming available from an Aurora home, they were either bought by the town or donated to the museum. The collection grew out of the love and respect Aurora folk have for their history.

The Historic Society raised $750,000. locally for the new museum in the the Church Street School. Some of the money was spent on the plans.

A lease agreement was signed with the Society in 2004. It is for ten years, with options for five plus five.It's a current lease.

Cathie Malloy, the curator who followed Jackie, processed a grant application to Heritage Ontario and received $770,000 ....FOR THE MUSEUM.

Now we have no museum. No programs for children. No summer history camps.

The collection is stored in boxes in the basement of the Church Street School.

Instead , we have a near empty building with a grand piano.

We spent more than $3 million to renovate the building as a state of the art museum.

Now it's available free in the name of "Culture" for events like a black tie affair preceding a commercial event staged in our park that we helped financed with a grant of $2,000.

We finance the operation of Church Street School, from our taxes at a rate of half a million dollars a year .

We have an agreement to provide the money on receipt of quarterly statements.

The renovations were completed last September. Almost twelve months ago.

Council has received no record of quarterly statements.

The Mayor informed us last week by e-mail , a September date may be arranged to receive a presentation.

When we received a" business plan" from the consultant retained to outline how the facility. including museum, would be organized , the statement was made the operation would wean itself from town support by $100,000 a year.

Instead the current agreement indicates we will increase the funds for operations by 3% a year.

How's that for a bill of goods ?

I know my reader didn't ask for all that... but it just spills out...in sheer aggravation.... y'ken.