Jack,, Cow,,,Beanstalk..Giant...Goose that lays Golden Eggs.

Somebody asked about  the bus ...the neighbors apparently came to an  agreement. The people with the bus are going to find a vehicle to  meet  zoning restriction

There will be no Ontario Municipal Board hearing.

So we all expended hugely on an issue that  now it seems never needed to come to  Council in the first place.

We did an awful lot of that  during the term. Cell towers, a trio of trees , tree bylaw, etcetera etcetera.

Stuff that didn't need to be talked about.

Stuff that did ,was talked about, reported on, talked about more ,got deferred ,talked about again and never  did get decided.

We   spent $80.000. and approved a Strategic Plan. And by so doing gave staff authority for implementation.

Renovations to  the Town Hall were planned and proceeded. Estimates  and bids were above funds approved  so that got cancelled. But not before $300,000 were spent.

Plans for a joint facility for works and parks ballooned to  $26.9 million . The project is on track.  Contract have been called for this without that and that without this and  other variations on the theme.

Such a process will undoubtedly up the ante but we now have  the Mayor Dawe and  a Councillor monitoring  finances .

That  should gives some comfort.

In the meantime, Hallmark Cards property of twenty nine acres  of level land in a prime location with a hundred thousand square feet of building ,listed at $17.5 million, sold for $14.5 million.

It could have been our joint facility but Oh Dear Me No. We couldn't do anything as simple as that.

We  reviewed history, held public meetings,recommended  action  on Library Square , deferred decision and chased after a Fab Lab that came to  nothing. I

Many, many expensive man hours were expended  and all for naught.

Scouts were sent out to identify property we could buy and gift to the University of Windsor in return for locating a satellite campus here.

Worth the effort, you say.

Well  hardly. The deal fizzled.

We spent $25,000. and  hundreds of hours of sunshine  staff time  as well as contemplated spending several million on real estate, on a Fantasy Heritage Park before we climbed off that ledge.

Nothing ventured ,nothing gained . We joined the competition for a York University satellite campus  preparing to gift 11 million. and that was just Aurora's share.

We were not the chosen ones but the two Mayors are determined to keep the dream alive anyway.

The goal of establishing a post-secondary institute is still in the Strategic plan  It's like the Ten Commandments Moses brought down from the mountain, chiseled into two tablets of stone.

We have  staff  with authority to spend time on such projects no matter what else doesn't get done.

There was a  rebuke to my comment that we don't know how  culture centre board members  are selected or how staff have been hired.  The commenter said we don't ask those questions of other contractors who provide service to the town.

That's true. But we do ask them to compete.  We specify our requirement.  We analyze the bids and check backgrounds for competence  before awarding a contract.

It's not a novel idea.

It's not even our idea.

It's a requirement of provincial regulation.