"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

Friday 16 August 2013

The chicken before the egg. The cart before the horse. A rof to last longer than the building.

A couple of interesting decisions were made. Aurora Community Centre One was approved for a new roof. A metal roof.

. It costs twice as much as the current roofing material but it lasts twice as long.

 Forty years instead of twenty.

 Steel is hardier than poly-vinyl and it will match the roof on Community Centre Two.

 Councillor Abel remarked on a leak in a dressing room in Community Centre Two.

But no information was forthcoing on that and it was not pursued.

 The Director of Environment and Infrastructure had no knowledge of the matter.

 In the re-organization of last term, approved by Council, responsibility for facility maintenance was transferred to the Director of E and I from the Director of Leisure Services.

 Now, the Director of L.S., sitting next to the Director of I and E would have had the answer to Councillor Abel's query. He leases the space to users

. In his previous capacity, a leak in the roof of a dressing room would have been brought to his attention. If mot by the Manager of Facility Maintenance, certainly by the fee-paying clientele of Leisure Services.

 Another interesting factor was not considered. Council has approved reserves be set aside for replacement of facilities anticipated every forty years. Sufficient funds are collected in taxation and stashed away for the purpose.

 But, you know, Community Centre One is forty-six years old.

We just approved a double expenditure for a roof to last another forty-years (according to the sale pitch)

It means a building that reached end of its life cycle six years ago will now have a roof to last until it
is eighty-six years old.

 We probably shouldn't worry over much. The metal roof on Community Centre Two hasn't lasted forty years. If the heavy panels on the vast expanse of roof of Community Centre One don't blow  off in high  wind and cause other collateral damage, backdating demolition of the building six years might make sense after all.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Did anyone at the table feel that the Auroran poll indicating more than 80% of respondents did not approve of that renovation project was worth taking into consideration ?

Anonymous said...

10:27 I believe that certain parties consider all media, especially Blogs, to be suspect. And Brock Weir does not indicate how many people responded. So 85-86% of what? It does seem passing strange when there is this on-going whine about needing public input.

Anonymous said...

The old knowledge about Aurora vanished with the eradication of staff last term.Used to be you walked into the town hall with a problem, spoke to a few people you knew by first name & left without the problem. The consolidation now by the new ones can not establish roots. It makes me grin when I hear a newbie on this Blog tell us that we Now live in a Big Town.

Anonymous said...

Perhaps the otherwise useless town web-site could have polls so that Aurorans knew what their councillors were considering before it gets to the table and is approved. There is too much shape-shifting going on. We don't need to see that stuff again. Most of us can recall the past Council which voted on items written on little slips of paper that some of the members did not even see either in advance or during the votes.