Portents and Omens present

At Councillor Gallo'a  meeting  on  Wednesday,the presence of" The Presence"
and suggestion of skullduggery in Council's closed session on the issue of a redundant school site ,brought  back a memory.

A double lot  at the corner of Cameron had an old house, more like a  summer cottage sprawled across the lot line.

The house  had to go to restore separation of the two lots.

It  required an application  for variance to  Committee of Adjustment, a quasi-judicial body appointed by Council but not subject to Council.

Zoning Bylaws are  passed to create order not hardship. When an existing lot needs a  variance to
bring it into compliance,  the committee makes the decision.

An application is circulated .  Neighbours and the town are invited to comment.

There's  a fee of ,I think $450.

A delegation appeared before Council demanding the committee be directed to refuse the application.

The area was historical. they said. The applicant had just finished restoring a building on Wellington Street and sold it. All he wanted to do was make money.

Like operating a drug ring or a house of hanky-panky or human trafficking or any  other unsavoury ways of making money.  Who knew what was in the delegates' mind  that would be sufficient detriment to the neighborhood to mount strong opposition?

Limits   Council's jurisdiction was explained.

Nothing daunted ,the delegate went off and collected a petition to oppose the application.

I received a call from the applicant. I affirmed the process.

Next thing , the house was gone. It was an old frame house without a basement. It disappeared
entirely from the landscape in an afternoon.

Didn't hear much about it after that. A nice two-storey brick home soon  occupied one of the lots.
The second was probably built after that  and  both added to the assessment roll.

The "Presence" was on Council at the time.

At regular intervals a puff of sulpherous smoke indicated  a fire being nurtured.

 "The Presence" was  never far. But a front man or woman was always there.

"The presence" was  very careful about leaving fingerprints.