Baby Steps

We will be back at the budget to-night. I want to tell you about another item from the last meeting that was meaningful to me. 
$85 thousand was listed to pave a pathway from  Mark Street and McMahon Park. The neighborhood is forty years old. Some parts much older. The easement  has been there at least forty years. 
We saw a picture. The easement obviously serves two functions. 
The path at the park end ends in a  square concrete abutment with an iron grid. Clearly a storm outlet. 
It was constructed when the subdivision was built and obviously it's part of the road  drainage.There are several  paths into the small park.
So why now? Why $85, thousand? 
It seems one resident who  provides a day care service wants the concrete abutment moved and the path sloping and paved all the way into the park. 
That's why the big ticket.
I was prepared to argue. 
But Councillor Gallo  beat me to it.
 I always hope for that.
I wait for someone else to speak first. 
It gets tiresome being the only one  opposed.
Like a nagging wife or mother, one's voice is eventually not heard.  
Councillor  Gallo said he had received the complaint and  had gone to look at the situation. 
While he sympathised, he could not bring himself to support that amount of expenditure.
Well Hallellujah, I thought. 
The $85, thousand item  was removed from the Capital  budget.