"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 30 December 2014

Since You Asked ,I will tell

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Two wrongs don't make a right.":

09:44 I find it humourous that the discussion around the centre use war-like words.

"They occupy a building...." is just another in a long line of it.

The reality is, they are using a building that the elected officials of this Town have granted them access. Further, the Town has also decided to provide funding.

Short of ideas like storing a bunch of old garbage (under the guise of a museum), no one has a better use for the building. As well, no one can suggest anything that will not drain the treasury of the Town.

My point in this is to ask all of those so critical of the Centre - Ms Buck included - to provide a viable replacement?
Posted by Anonymous to Our Town and Its Business at 29 December 2014 at 08:58

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I left this comment in draft to consider how to handle it.  The language is abrasive. Yet  the writer clearly wants to engage. I am always happy to oblige though usually in respectful terms.

Reference to the museum collection being a  "bunch of old garbage " is scuttlebutt. The town treasurer  made similar reference. He suggested the collection was a bunch of stuff  collected from yard sales.

I thought it odd at the time. The collection had been stored when the museum was required to vacate the old school for renovations. Mr. Elliott was not in  town service then. Nor domiciled in the area. It was easy to conclude the information was other than from personal experience..

It may be safe to assume contemptuous  dismissal of collection value was part  reason  for the board decision to squeeze the museum out of the facility.

The board's first decision  was to lease dedicated museum space to a York Region Arts organization.

Rent- free lease with the town, required  permission to lease space to a third party.

Re-organization  of town management team shifted responsibility for facilities from the Director
 of Leisure Services to Director of Environmental and Infrastructure.(formerly public works) .Mr.
Simanovskis knew nothing of the matter and gave permission without a second thought. Didn't even ask

Truth  is the facility was always intended to serve the dual purpose.  Cultural events would obviously be compatible with heritage.

Only one objective validates separate management. Independence from tax support to ensure the program would not  be an additional burden  to taxpayers.

Annual increases  in financial support, even when space and responsibility were  reduced, establishes there is not even awareness  of the imperative let alone intent.

The Culture Centre Board of Management is redundant.

Leisure programming  under town management is self-sufficient.

Revenues more than offsets expenditures.

There is  no rationalization under any formula that justifies continuance.

The community is ill-served.

The Board should resign.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

The Board is certainly redundant to town management. It just adds an extra layer of bodies and costs to the running of the place. People tend to forget that the place was once a bustling school run by teachers and a small janitorial team. Now the current operators are comparing themselves to operations such as the Art Gallery and Museum. It is all so grandiose.

Anonymous said...

I doubt the the board is going anywhere. They feel they are doing a good job. What I would like to see from them, though, is some indication that they recognize the need to reduce the annual subsidy paid by the town. That is happening all over the country as organizations adjust to the economy. If they truly are an important part of Aurora, they should be willing to share some of the burden.

Anonymous said...

I laughed when reading the comment in regards to the word "occupy", and how it is used as a war-like term. I'd like to know what word is appropriate? They're not leasing it so the're not tenants.

Anonymous said...

The town doesn't run it either, so it's not a town program. I guess it's just another creative way for the town to justify spending to the entitled.

Anonymous said...

15:04, "the entitled" being all Aurorans, of course.

Anonymous said...

The one who employed the war terms was former Cllr Ballard with his sabres at dawn. And to a certain extent that Italianate whacko who never got to be Cllr.

Anonymous said...

I have no idea what prompting the weird out-pouring from that centre lackey - maybe the non-attendance at their meeting which no one seems to have known about - but it has not served their image well.
When I was in Tim's I head a couple of guys who I did not even recognize discussing the Self-centred centre.

Anonymous said...

15:04- These services are all ready being offered by the town and privately for all Aurorans.

Anonymous said...

19:02, where else in Aurora can I go to see Sylvia Tyson, Dan Hill, or Dala in 2015?

Anonymous said...

10 minutes down the road at the Performing Arts Center !