The Lawn Bowling Club pays an annual fee of $1,000. for use of the facility. For years they maintained the lawns. The numbers dropped,remaining members were less able and the town was asked to take over maintenance. I posited, to be equitable with other user groups, user fees should be payable.
The Club Hiuse was built by the Lion's Club is owned by the town and shared by Lawn Bowling and Tennis Club.The clubs pay utilities. Not sure if lights at the courts and lawns are on the meters.
Men's Soccer Club at the south end of town pay $1.00 a year rent.
They have use of a prime industrial acreage site worth millions for a dollar a year . When it was given to them Councillor Earl Stewrat described it as worthless. The Club operates a restaurant and bar in competition with catering businesses We have on occasions seen invitations to,the general public in contravention of their agreement.
We read about AYSC hosting seventeen tournaments during the PanAm games. That was probably a lucrative source of revenue for the club.
It was interesting to read the Mayor's ruminations in his column this week about the worth of public/private partnerships. He referred to the artificial sod on Separate School property.
The town and school board are both public agencies.
The town does have a public/private partnership that hasn't worked out too well . The Soccer Bubble
behind the Legion is owned and lucratively operated privately.
The town has paid Regiional and school board taxes annually to the tune of $50.000 a year for maybe twenty years. A million dollars out of taxpayers pockets for private gain. Not a good model.
The Director of Recreation says there is a way to correct that. The CFO says no.
The town has agreed to allow the Baseball Association free use of a million dollar facility in return
for undertaking maintenance. They will hire students for maintenance as opposed to the town hiring students to work under professional supervision. Aurora has the best maintained facilities in the Region. The town will not save money with the new arrangement. The Baseball association will save $8700 for non-payment of user fees.
Council agreed to excuse the fees at the same time the Baseball Association amalgamated with King Baseball Association.
So King gets Magna .....AND they don't have to provide baseball facilities.
BTW , 90% of the cost of the Baseball field was funded by development charges paid by new homeowners in the neighbourhood. Nothing at all by King baseball players.
The Mayor's thoughts about municipal hardship having to pay so much for infrastructure while receiving minimal share of revenues from taxes was intriguing.
I wonder how new infrastructure built by developers and millions in iDevelopment charges funneled into the town treasury is discerned as hardship. While a million a year is forked out from taxes for a culture surplus, half a million transferred to the federal treasury for a smelly old contaminated structure that took up a corner of our town park for a century and a half and two and a half million was paid for six acres of land for which we have no known purpose.
To say nothing of relieving some of user fees and development charges while others are required to pay with no opportunity to appeal.
Sport Aurora Magazine is a private commercial advertising operation. Fre space provided in the town hall and benefit of a municipal address from which to launch applications for grants to other public agencies as a non-profit agency.
The town buys a full page of advertising in the magazine. No discount .
At least three other publications, The Auroran,The Banner and Snap are in the competitive business
of advertising.
Summer Concerts in the Park are sponsored by local business also expected to sponsor local teams.
The Mayor ruminates about advertising as a possible source of additional municipal revenue.
Not to reduce taxes. Oh Dear Me No. The Mayor has publicly eschewed that notion.
The hidden objective must be to increase largesse to have more to give away.
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22 comments:
We do continue to get soaked. I am continually astonished at how the mayor has morphed from a seemingly shy guy who pledged that his council would keep its hands out of taxpayers' pockets.
Check the DOW. The economy is going to stop all the largesse.
It is going to stop a lot of things.
Someone once said: "'Tis better to give than to receive."
And that became the town's motto.
Mr. I would settle for less taxes but the mayor does not think that is a good idea.
Ah, 15:30
Your snap-shot in time was taken when the man was a novice candidate reading scripts prepared by others and
accepting advice from a good team. The team has since dispersed and the advice was rejected. There was maybe a bit of help
during the last election but the opposition made it easy enough to just keep quiet.
As expected, the Greek chorus chimes in on cue. It's practically Pavlovian.
22:18
While you provide the barking dogs.
@ 22:18
You have just described yourself. I have seen nothing to indicate anyone else lurks drooling for the next post.
@09:21
Uh, my comment is some 10 hours after the post was published.
Nows that's a nicer looking day.
The mayor is talking through his hat about the advertising.
"I have seen nothing to indicate anyone else lurks drooling for the next post."
You're not looking close enough, 09:21. The dissenting voices may stand out to you, but you can't be oblivious to the like-minded ones keen to echo similar thoughts.
15:30 - It's your typical politician running for a seat. Say what an electorate wants to hear, then do the complete opposite when you win.
When Mayor Dawe ran in his first term, it really was an easy win. What's her name sealed her fate at the tail end of her term and out she went with a big bang. His second kick at the can was even easier, another easy win. I believe Dawe was the best canditate for the job at each of these elections, but knew that this Town was going to pay large with him at the helm, but we were going to pay even more with the alternatives. What's the electorate to do? We have the same problem coming up with this federal election.
21:30
I agree with your analysis.He had had an extremely easy time of it.
Gallo was a piece of cake. So much got lost along the way, though, including the importance of the blogs in both elections. ?Yet Dawe refuses to even consider them worthy of notice. Bound to be a problem for him if he even needs them again. They are moving farther and farther out of his reach,
He and that slate were made by the Citizen and the other blogs to a slightly lesser extent.
Now I have no idea if any of the councillors scan blogs
Oh they sure do! There's council members from other town's reading.
23:00 -
REally. But The Mayor said he did not - that they were all the same with a shrug.
He may not personally read them, but who's to say he doesn't have someone read them for him.
If they don't read blogs they are ignorant. It is definitely easier for them to do their job or make decisions when there is little public input. I always thought that mayor's and council job was to listen to the people.
Oh they listen to the people. The problem is which people.
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