"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

Tuesday 23 December 2014

Light at the end of the tunnel

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Force of Nature":

FALSE, 09:38. The Historical Society 'threw the keys on the table,' and even wanted it in writing that they were over and out of there. 


 Anonymous to Our Town and Its Business at 23 December 2014 at 12
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That would be why the Aurora Historical Society retained specialty architects to design renovations in the Church Street School to fill  requirements of a state-of-the-art museum using funds,almost a million, raised in the community for the purpose.

And why the town adopted the plans and approved an allocation of $2.3 million dollars from the Hydro Reserve to complete renovations for the purpose of a museum.

 It was how the community understood the funds  and the building were to be used.

It was why museum curator Cathie Malloy was appointed by the Historical Society to take the place of Jacqueline Stewart, curator and heritage planner in the town's service for several decades.Salary funded by a grant from the Town.

And why Ms Malloy as curator successfully processed a grant of  $750,000. from a Heritage Foundation  to be used for the purpose of a museum in Church Street School.

If keys were thrown on the table by Aurora Historical Society, it did not happen at a meeting
of record.  Reference is  required  before that statement can be accepted.
AS for something in writing! the Historical Society had a legal agreement with the town to protect their financial investment in the project  and giving them authority to manage the project.

They did surrender the agreement  and secure $450,000 remaining of funds raised in the community
for the purpose of a museum.

A new agreement was signed  by the town with a temporary Culture Centre Board (Heritage
removed)of known citizens, providing the rent-free building with  all maintenance and $340,000 for purchase of culture without public consultation. No input on the new direction. No stamp of public approval.

Costs rose to almost a million dollars annually under stewardship of the council elected to replace the council that did the original nefarious deed.

The good news is a room  has been wrested  from the Culture Centre  Board for  the purpose of heritage displays and a new curator hired under the direction of Mr Downey ,Director of Recreation Services.  The curator comes from  a background with Mc Michael's Art Gallery in Kleinburg.

From a Heritage aspect, there is room  for hope.

But no sign of curtailment of funding for the culture  boondoggle as a result of having less
space and no responsibility for heritage programming.

The community should reasonably expect the culture budget to be reduced by at least the cost of
Heritage programming without being accused of "zealotry

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

There was no throwing of keys - the historical people simply had dwindled to a very few half-interested individuals who could no long afford to exist. Much like what we are seeing with Hillary. The good news there is that the current council consists largely of people who gave Hillary just to this year to prove worthy of more funding, If those councillors change their minds they could be in for a rough ride.

Anonymous said...

Ya know…I know there’s 2 sides to every story. I've been reading some of these comments, and one in particular stood out. The duplication of services. I did a search to see if there were duplications, and to my disappointment, there certainly is, many in fact, both in the private and also within the Town programs. Duplication of gov’t services is something the provincial and federal gov’t is good at doing. A Town of this size should know better, and to compete with small Aurora businesses is not smart either.
I also read somewhere that it takes a council courage to make hard and difficult changes. Well I guess with find out in the next few years.

Anonymous said...


How much curating can a person do in one room?

Or am I missing something?

For this to be done properly you need an entire building, which is what there used to be before the hijacking.

Anonymous said...

14::58
If you have lived here quite a while, you will also notice replacement of existing services once provided by the service organizations. If they could take over blood donations, they would do that too. And probably figure out a way to bring in revenue by selling t-shorts at the same time.

Anonymous said...

15:44, the museum never occupied the "entire building." It was shared with other community groups.

Anonymous said...



16:16

Oh, and what were these and how much space did they require? I doubt any of them had a full-time "curator" or equivalent.

Aurora seems to have many thousands of artefacts and for even a fraction of the more meaningful to be properly exhibited takes a lot of room, especially if you are going to have a description of the item, its use, age and origin.

There's 3/4 of a block sitting doing virtually nothing on that same street. You could build a multi-story building with a theatre, recording studio, art and sculpture studio. You name it, it can come.

In the meantime the Air Canada Centre (is that not what ACC refers to?) is doing a booming trade now that the Raptors are winning.

Anonymous said...

"You could build a multi-story building with a theatre, recording studio, art and sculpture studio. You name it, it can come."

How would you reconcile that massive expense with all the anti-expenditure people on this blog?

Anonymous said...



18:07

Having a big bank balance does nothing to promote the quality of peoples' lives.

We only exist for a short time and should look at the possibilities that might make our lives more enjoyable.

I know, there will be those who want to hoard the bank balance. Well I say, screw them.

Anonymous said...

21:33
Your version of the quality of life seems to depend on your own rather narrow needs rather than those of
all the groups in town. Do you even know where the food Pantry is located ?

Anonymous said...



There is one missing.

Anonymous said...

Yes, 09:26, EVERYONE needs to consider "all the groups in town" - not just those that you like or agree with...

Anonymous said...

18:44
One of the weak points in that presentation to council by the Centre was the lack of understanding and awareness in Aurora about what the place " provided ". Their own figures had shown it.
Perhaps making friends should be higher on the agenda because after 5 years there does not seem to be much improvement from what I can see.
I neither " like " or " dislike " the current programs.... but see no reason to continue catering to duplication of services anywhere in town.

Anonymous said...

14:02, the largest "lack of understanding and awareness" about the Cultural Centre seems to be here amongst its minuscule cohort.

I doubt anyone's losing sleep over that, though.