Earmarks And Entitlements

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Nothing Less Than Public Trust Is Involved":

"It will not make the building adequate for a culture centre (sic) for the performing arts."

That opinion *might* be valid if it came from someone who had actually attended an event. Regardless, the last three years have proven that Church Street School is much more than "adequate" as the home of Aurora's cultural centre.
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I attended the official opening following completion of the renovations/ It had still  not been disclosed , the  space  built for  a museum  had been sneakily and slyly stolen from beneath their feet.
Yet there were those who knew. 
Weeks later, the curator. receiving no help from staff,  was still trying to discover from  the agreement what  rights had been allocated to the museum.
Still theinformation was being withheld. .  
My questions in  public were evaded by Councillors, the Mayor  and staff,  who were certainly in on the deal.
Church Street School was not a new build
In all its different functions over the years, I have become very familiar with the facility. 
As a taxpayer, I am aware of how much was spent to keep the old building standing and the controversy that surrounded whether or not it was worth it. 
We fought the good fight.
Ran the gauntlet of  public controversy .
Established through numerous elections, public support of the concept of the school being the chosen symbol of the town's heritage and values.
We made the decision to use $2.3 million dollars of the hydro asset 
to create a state of the art,modern concept museum.
Still another $750,000 was successfully obtained in a grant from Heritage Canada for the same purpose.  
Only to have the whole purloined by people who were elected to represent public interest as it was clearly understood. 
Now we are  looking at the possibility of an election that promised a fresh start, a new beginning, turning instead into  re-affirmation  of the nefarious activities  of the past Council and administration.
The comment published could be taken to mean two things. 
The eight thousand square feet of programmable space in the building is ample for a performing  arts centre.in Aurora because of sparse  numbers that  attend  events.
Or. it's  more than adequate  because numbers are not sufficient to fill  to capacity the minimum amount of space available.
The main room of the seniors centre likely holds twice as large an audience.
The Council Chamber,  even larger, was built for the purpose but except for once,never a request has been  made,  since the  builing was completed , to accommodate a concert in that venue.
A visit to Richmond Hill Performing Arts Centre Web site will enlighten anyone as to an adequate  Performing Arts Centre. 
The web site for Burlington  Performing Arts Centre ,will provide similar insight into what can be considered an adequate Cultural Centre.
Church Street School  with a full-blown autonomous Board of Governors  with a function of  operating self- sufficiently, while receiving almost a million dollars of public resources and meeting  in private confidential ,secret from the public, to decide how the public's  resources  will be spent,, is a contradiction in terms. 
It is blatant betrayal of  the trust, invested in  Council.  to manage  town finances openly and transparently 
Why it happened  in the past is of interest only insofar as to ensure it should not  be continued into  the future.
The decision is political.It's not trivial.
There are no administrative arguments to support  it.
The wrong decision  will be earmarked.