Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Those Who Mind Do Matter":
You have mentioned the library and the demolished house many times.Now could you please have the integrity to post who owned the property the library was erected on.
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Properties from Church Street School to and including the corner at Yonge and points north, were acquired by the town for the library site. There were at least seven or eight. I have no idea who owned them . The house I mentioned in debate had been acquired previously by the town.
At one time, when I was Mayor, the entire square was envisioned as a Civic Square.and in fact was an addendum to the Official Plan. We owned half of the block. We acquired the house on Yonge with a view to making the vision a reality.
Councils change. new visions take the place of old and it became Library. Square. Now the town owns about two thirds of the square. Two library buildings are surplus. The old firehall under-utilizes the ground it sits on. The same can be said for Victoria Hall. Also once used as a library
A decision about the fate of the surplus buildings, has been pending since the new library was constructed. Thirteen or fourteen years since.
Studies have shown exorbitant cost required to keep the old library as it is and accessible
.Adapting it for re- use is impossible because of thickness of the concrete floor needed to support the weight of books.
Neither this council nor the last nor the one before, ever got around to tackling the decision waiting to be made
Instead we occupy our time spending money on never-ending studies on the down- town, $84,thousand on a Strategic plan, A strategy for business retention and expansion. A data bank, for God's Sake.
Files full of airy-fairy pages of pretty coloured pictures, hours and hours of meetings and public input, turtle ponds and snake hibernaculums, and now $214. thousand for a consultant to design a wildlife park on land we do not own which will not get SLSCA approval.Oh yes and endless media releases about our exciting accomplishments. .
On and on we go, spending millions to stack binders of verbiage of little substance while major issues languish on the shelf.
We spend money on bafflegab schemes about how to attract "investors" to our town and improve "customer service" for " Clients and stakeholders" while we take three years to permit a would-be investor to invest . And by the way, while they persist, we treat them like pirates trying to rob us of our heritage.
We raise taxes every year and complacently watch shop doors close and businesses leave town. while we contrive every which way to put obstacles in the way of re-development and desperately needed new assessment.
We give away millions of hard-earned taxes, hand over fist, to self-acclaimed grandiose saviours of the community's well-being who have never been elected to any position of accountability or given authority from anybody we know.
We seem to know best, cosily advised by our experts, how to spend money with no visible sign of return. Only in government you say? .Aye, ye're right ,we do say..
I have watched from a seat on council, powerless to stop it, the town going the way of an atypical institution, swelling like a bloated carcase, existing only to serve itself.
Are there any more questions for me to answer with integrity?
here any more questions for me to answer with integrity?
ReplyDeleteYes ,there is one more , how do you have the stamina to fire off these brilliant posts back to back to back.
You have this Town and its players sized up so well its scary , Now if only they would listen.
It boggles to check in and find that the scavengers have nothing better to do with their time. Perhaps they are paying some unemployable relatives to write all that stuff but there is at least one with ancient history and old grudges. Maybe that character who posted once that he/she would rather be nothing than be Evelyn ?
ReplyDeleteNasty way to wind down the week but they do love to post and snicker.
Speaking of closing business. I have not seen 1 post anywhere about how Canada Law Books has closed it doors. I would think after Statefarm and Magna, this would have been the largest office in town.
ReplyDeleteIf I understand the question -- who owned the land the Library was built on -- I may be able to provide some background as a meber oif Council during that term.
ReplyDeleteJohn West and I identified that if the town purchased a number of properties located on Yonge and Church from individual land owners, the town would own a large block of the downtown core which could be used to aid in rejuvenating the downtown core.
This idea was presented to Council in closed session (as was appropriate for a land deal) and Council directed staff to work with a Realtor to investigate purchasing the properties. We were eventually successful.
Once the land was purchased, it was separately decided that it might serve the public better to build a new library on the recently purchased site versus the initial plan to extend the old library.
So initially each parcel was owned by separate land owners. Once the land was purchased to become part of the square, Council considered how best to utilize this new land and decided to build the new library on it.
Hope that helps. :)
Hello Evelyn,
ReplyDeleteI didn't know how to send this directly to your blog so I attached it as a comment to your latest entry.
I know it may not be appropriate for you to comment on the on-goings of another local council so I understand if you decline but…
Given what the Town of Aurora went through with its lawsuit against Johnson, Hogg & Bishenden and information presented in the YorkRegion.com article “Georgina mayor sues former employee” (see http://www.yorkregion.com/news/article/1281745--georgina-mayor-sues-former-employee ), I would be very interested in what you think (and also the readers of your blog) about the Town of Georgina’s current action on behalf of their Mayor Rob Grossi against John McLean and the passing of their by-law authorizing this action.
You can also see “Taxpayers to foot legal bills in defamation lawsuit” (page 1); “More musings…” (page 2) and “Mayor and McLean speak out on defamation law suit” (page 3) of The Pefferlaw Post –found at http://www.thepefferlawpost.com/issue_archive/Jan241212pgs.pdf
Mr Hogg, my understanding of the question is that it's about the identities of the "individual land owners" who sold the houses to the Town, rather than about the process.
ReplyDeletep.s. nice to see you out of hibernation, by the way.
Unfortunately, I do not recall who each individual land owner was. The transactions were handled by the Town legal department without input from Council excepting direction on price. No piece of property was purchased until we had agreement from all owners to sell.
ReplyDeleteWe may have known the names at the time -- but most discussions were in the context of the addresses. It was a number of years ago, but my best memory recall is that we had to deal with a separate owner for each home.
Sounds like a freedom of information request may be applied here.
ReplyDeleteWhy it it important who owned the land on which the Library was built ? The Historical Society could just ask the town for the information and then see if a FOI is required- shouldn't be. I hope this isn't one of the local snipers trying to dig up some information they think will make a point now.
ReplyDelete