"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

Saturday 2 February 2013

A Few Nit-Picking Details

Also Starts with G has left a new comment on your post "Plagiarism of Sorts":

Speaking of giving "better attention to accuracy," Grimsby is in the Regional Municipality of Niagara, near Hamilton.

The town in South-Western Ontario that suffered storm damage last year, that you're probably confusing it with, is Goderich

***********

Thank you. I may have made the connection because  Seaman's job in Aurora  and Oakville, I believe was Heritage Planner.
For the sake of full disclosure  about the Petch House, several things combined  made it possible.
After years of mouldering at the side of  the road, collecting rain from a gaping hole in the roof , dead animals and every other kind of festering stuff one might imagine, and myself making as much noise as possible about  imminent demise, no interest  was stirred  in a possible location or use for the building. 
The developer who  committed to working with the town to save the structure. made a final  commitment of $50,000. to use as the town saw fit.
The town's manager of parks proposed a location.
An anonymous contribution of $15,000  was already in the pot. 
Vandorf's  Van Nostrand, specialist  in re-building and re-locating old  structures, indicated  after the foul debris was removed it was still salvageable 
Aurora  Council agreed to undertake the project. 
Total cost will be more than combined funds mentioned above. 
Funds budgeted for several years will be utilised.
Final figures are not yet known. 
Credit for saving the Petch House  belongs to Council and the community that paid the bills.
The anonymous donor whose passion undoubtedly had an influence. 
And the developer who carried through with his commitment.
The building's use has yet to be determined.
That will be the final telling point.
From a heritage perspective the structure is not authentic. 
It' no longer sits out there  in the hills of Whitchurch.
But it will sit on a former Whitchurch farm. 
It will have a sense of the home it was. Of generations of babies born  and those who drew last breath within  its walls and the joy and sadness that accompany any  family's life.
It will  almost certainly never move again from the place it sits now. I  hope it will be respected.
I think it's  a good thing.
And for the record, it  had absolutely nothing  to do with Michael Seaman or Katherine Belrose.    
    
 
                                                                                                                                                                    .

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

We would not want the facts to get in the way of the spin.