"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

Tuesday 1 May 2012

The Late Garfield Wright

The problem when people buy a property overlooking a golf course is that they do not acquire the land with their view. It is owned by the golf course and subject to economic conditions as well as requiring regular servicing all summer and sometimes tree culling in the winter. It is quite clear in the residential plans. They can not suddenly claim possession. This reminds me of people who move into a rural area and then demand that the roads be paved and provided with sidewalks. Ain't going to happen

.''****

This comment reminds me of a story the late Garfield Wright told .

He was a farmer and  Reeve of East Gwillimbury, a rural township immediately north of Newmarket.

He received an irate call from a resident newly removed from the city.  The complaint was about  loss of water service.

"No water in the taps" What the hell is going on?"

Garfield  politely asked him a couple of questions and directed him to a  silent black object in a corner of the  basement and identified it as the pump ,connected to  the well  that supplied  the house with water. It had blown a fuse.

The city slicker had  bought  a house in the country without  any idea that urban services were unlikely miles into the country on a dirt road.

I heard Garfield tell  that story a number of times. It never failed to get a hearty chuckle.

A  favourite saying   "like my old Dad used to say; if you're so smart ....why ain't you rich? "

Another way of saying it could be ...You're so rich, why aren't you smart ?

Garfield Wright was  appointed the  first Chairman of  York Region  by the Province  of Ontario.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think the golf course neighbours are in the same category as the nuts that want to stop the train whistles and horns after they buy a house near the tracks. Or those that buy a house at the end of a runway at an airport.

Anonymous said...

Councillor Buck,
When a developer wanted to build directly behind our rural property in King, we went to the town for help. The developer make adjustments to his plans to include buffering and plantings to help offset the change to our view and landscape. Although it wasn't the best scenario for us,we were satisfied that this was as much that could be done both legally and with goodwill. Sometimes a little goodwill and good sense goes a long way in remedying situations, rather than waving placards and having people take sides. Calling people stupid doesn't help either.

Anonymous said...

A new home owner in the country had just learned that he had a septic tank which had to be pumped out. He watched fascinated as the guys went to work and then noticed some birth control items were gathering in a floated mess on top of the water.
" Oh, " he exclaimed. " Those are not from my children. They must come from the people at the top of the hill."

Anonymous said...

8:17 AM
I see nowhere where Councillor Buck has referred to anyone for being stupid in this tree by-law mess. She does seem to be irritated that decisions are once again being forced onto Council. As usual, all these special meetings cost money for Aurora. The good thing from where I sit is that if Ms. Walmer decides to initiate court action to get Aurora to control golf course trees, she and her group will have to pay for it.
We had enough with the former council opposing everything even when it made no physical or fiscal sense to do so. Aurora is not about to get into more lawsuits.