Tim the Enchanter has left a new comment on your post "The Perennial Question....":
Too bad they didn't have this conversation BEFORE they blew our money on the Petch House.
If there were no takers then it should have been hauled away to the landfill.
Oh well.
Live and learn.
*********************
It seems you may not have been here long.
I was re-elected in 2003 The Petch House had been carried on steel beams and plunked down on cinder blocks at the east side of Leslie Street some time before.
It was there by requirement of the town by subdivision agreement with the developer who bought the land it occupied since mid -eighteen hundreds.
$100,000 was budgeted and had been there for restoration in previous years.The building had been occupied until its move.
Most of the clap-board cladding had been replaced with insulbrick . Since it's move the insulbrick had mostly peeled off and blown away.
Racoons tore a hole in the roof. Tarpaulins tied down to keep out the elements ,blew like a ship's sail in the wind.
Logs never intended to be exposed gradually rotted away from the corners and the building became more and more dilapidated.
A donation of $18,000 from a private source was dis-claimed eventually.
For three years and then another four, the talk went in circles.
Original estimates from a local renovation expert were not accepted.
Funds were spent on new estimates also not accepted.
$8000. more were spent on an engineering consultant who calculated renovation would cost in excess of $400.000.
Annual motions to remove $100,000. from the budget failed.
On the understanding the developer was on the hook for transportation ,foundation utilities and driveway access ,the building was offered first to the Heritage Foundation,then the town's junior baseball association for equipment storage
There were no takers.
A meeting with the developer established a further $50.000. available for however the town wanted to spend it on the Petch House and that would be the end of it.
An election was held. Disposition of the Petch House was a first outstanding matter dealt with.
A location had become available. The project could be completed with funds available.
The decision was made. The building now sits on a concrete slab, pretty as a picture , completely authentic in appearance to when first built all those many years ago.
Power is hooked up. Wiring remains to be installed to wherever outlets are needed.
The Village of Machell's Corners was established at the intersection of Yonge Street and the Aurora Sideroad
Political boundaries meant little to farming families and village residents in the days.
The house is part of local history. To say it isn't Aurora's is but a quibble.
To second -guess a decision made in 2011,after eight years of no decision and funds spent with nothing accomplished, is as much a waste of time as all the years it took to finally make a decision.
The house cannot be replaced at any price.
A settler family celebrated all of life's events there for several generations
It's not hallowed space.
But we have it now. Let us respect it and use it well.
No doubt settler families who knew the joy and suffered the sorrow would have been pleased to know their memory lives on.
Petch house is sheltered on a low spot on Lambert Wilson's farm a few yards north of Aurora Sideroad. A mile or so west and south-side of the original location.
Let us enjoy it and take pride in what we did.
I think our children may think well of the decision.
Monday, 12 May 2014
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7 comments:
Man\, that was a dreadful wreck of a place - a firetrap in the making. For some reason it was decided by the former and company to " save " it. I have no clue who or what it was to be saved from or for but they were determined.
So, it came to pass, with the passing of the original group, that Petch was actually saved, moved, re-created [ sort of ] and now sits in neglected splendour.
Council could move on and incorporate it into the fantastic tree area [ which we also support ] . Or there might be ideas received after the recent request of residents to participate. Or they could follow the traditional route of ignoring it and hoping it goes away.
I'm done with this Petch house! It's restored, studied enough, consulted enough, and certainly spent enough. I'm culturally done.
This is by way of a general comment and comes from today's article by Bruce Anderson in The Globe and Mail - headed: Harper's Conservatives showing all the signs of an aging government."
" while lots of human skills sharpen over time, the political acumen of incumbents seems an exception: it generally becomes duller. Governments get used to congratulating themselves and lose the ability to gaze at their own situation with objectivity. Every criticism is judged as bias, rather than examined for its merits. Every critic is judged an enemy. Offence is taken when none is intended.
..........
No longer in the market for new friends, they seem constantly in search of enemies. Every night is fight night in Ottawa these days. They squabble without discrimination; as enthusiastic in their attacks on people they handpicked as they are with opposing political parties."
And south of the border, from AP:
"A widely popular, bipartisan energy saving bill is falling victim to election-year politics and the Obama administration's continued indecision on the Keystone XL oil pipeline."
There is much more, but it all boils down to a virtual life and death battle to see which team will have a few more players for the next two years, hence more power, more money, so that they can do it all over again, and again.
Aurora's Council is also aging, in that the end of its present term is approaching rapidly. And we have no idea yet those whose names might eventually come forward to seek office. There will be some carried forward and some new faces to adapt to. What will they say and how will they say it? Will they gain the trust of Aurorans or will we look upon them as dreadful mistakes, ones that we must simply learn to live with?
@19:31
In case you have not noticed, there is a candidate for council who supports sending an Auroran art student to Paris to study. That would be partially on your dime. The town already owns Petch and other assorted properties which could be sold, utilized by us or rented out to others. I am not prepared to neglect any possible source of income.
Appreciate the background info.
The situation is actually worse than I first thought.
A fiscal fiasco brought about by misplaced sentimentality.
A rotting, unused building, passed around successive councils like an unwanted foster child until this council finally took pity and signed a cheque.
Now we have a shiny new old building that nobody wants.
That is not to say that our architectural past should not be preserved - far from from it.
But a preserved building, standing empty with no voice, no context of place in history, is just a pile.
A meaningless pile.
"For three years and then another four, the talk went in circles."
Could that have been a clue that nobody wanted the damn thing?
So where is the common sense?
Where was the community initiative?
In all that time absolutely nobody came forward with an idea for use and a fundraising plan?
The Town still could have donated the location site.
Nope.
'Cuz that's not how we do things here in Aurora.
Have a big idea?
You don't need community involvement.
Just get a few like-minded supporters and head to Town Hall.
Cajole, pester, nag and harangue council until you get at least five votes.
Mission accomplished.
And yours truly will happily pick up the cheque for the latest "must-have".
And likely as not in ten or fifteen years the council of the day will once again debate the issue of what's to be done with the rapidly decaying Petch House.
There is no earthly reason why the museum people can't be using the Petch House, at least to start with.
It would seem to mere mortals like myself to be better than nothing considering the museum is homeless.
But that isn't the way either, is it?
Oh no.
The museum people are more interested in getting their vindication at council for the wrongs of the past.
Yeah, we know.
You were supposed to be in the Church Street School but blah, blah, blah.
But hey - the Cultural Centre won the lottery down at council - now it's our turn!
So instead of simply enforcing an agreement to share space the latest idea is that the wrong can be righted by spending even more hundreds of thousands of dollars (to start with) so the museum people can be "happy" too.
Totally unwarranted.
Totally ridiculous.
Spending for the sake of spending.
Thanks.
20:22- “Possible income”? You mean… like..revenue? The only revenue that government has been extremely successful in receiving is with Taxes. That’s their successful business. Anything else has been a dismal fail.
"Annual motions to remove $100,000. from the budget failed."
Moved by whom?
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