Maybe had something to do with the length of it but it needs to be said so I will say it here instead.
Read me carefully. I will write this only once.
A field of daffodils is featured on Facebook. Once it was a dull and empty field until the grass greened up.
The story goes, "people decided " to plant 1,500 daffodil bulbs. Now 4,500. are blooming.
That's not the whole story.
The ravine was dedicated to the town in the development process.
For the past ten years,since Hydro was sold, the town has invested $100,000 each year save one to make the ravine a beautiful place...like Edwards Gardens in North York.
I had visitors from Scotland some years ago. Edwards Gardens was on their list of places to see.
JIm Tree's parks department provides support to volunteers who spend the money. Roto-tilling and other hefty tasks are done by parks employees. They help the community garden group as well.
Rare tree specimens are planted throughout the ravine. The trail system meanders through from St John's Sideroad to Wellington Street. The trees are all tagged for identification.
Green and shady glens have been created with benches strategically placed to just sit and enjoy the tranquility.
All of it paid for from tax revenues.
At John West Way entrance to the Arboretum and the trail system sits a vestige of Aurora's early heritage.
Petch House, an early vintage clapboard structure, original home of an original settler was restored and re-located with funds from a developer, an anonymous donor and the town.
It shares the site with the Town Hall and Aurora Senior Centre.
Since two years, complete with ceremony and photo-op, it sits forlorn and empty, awaiting a decision on how it might be used. Added to ten years sitting at the side of Leslie Street,mouldering and housing dead carcasses of generations of wild life.
The door has been unlocked twice.Once for an employee's wedding .Once for the Christmas Story at the tree-lighting ceremony. It might be about 240square feet large. I tried to get the exact size but
gave up after a while.
Up the hill from the humble little home, seated in august splendour in a Council Chamber of Greek design, town fathers and mothers and other dignitaries endlessly discuss plans for marvelous ,ambitious,dramatic projects.
The latest resolution is to direct stuff to advise on how to lure a hostelry to Aurora.
Where all kinds of exciting opportunities await.
They haven't a clue how to use less than a couple of hundred feet of space in a self-contained building
But they just know the town desperately needs a hotel and a Culture Precinct to a acommodate the bustle.
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5 comments:
If brains were bagels we'd have the fixings of many a lox and cream cheese snack.
We don't have the brains nor even a bagel to show.
How hollow is our town on many an occasion.
The Ontario Provincial Police has launched another investigation into allegations that provincial government officials illegally destroyed documents concerning an aborted contract to supply electricity to the provincial grid.
This time it's a green-energy contract with a company that builds wind farms.
A previous investigation into the disappearance of files about the decision to cancel two gas-fired generating stations has already led to charges against Dalton McGuinty's then chief of staff and his deputy.
How are we supposed to trust anyone in the political system, be they politicians or civil servants?
Trust is lacking locally also.
Jim Tree's work for the town is fantastic. It is too bad that staff do not qualify for Citizen of the Years.
You can never trust them. Not with our money. And we hand them over a bundle. As long as the garbage is picked up, the water is running and the lights turn on...we'll keep paying quietly like good citizens.
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