"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 3 May 2016

IT'S GOOD TO BE SURE

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "RENE'S CAFE": 

You are confusing two separate organizations. The Aurora Soccer Club is for senior players (adult men & women), while the Aurora Youth Soccer Club is for kids (although they are now also fielding a senior side). 

Posted by Anonymous to  Our Town and Its Business at 3 May 2016 at 11:15

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Thank you for the clarification. 

I am aware of the club on Vandorf Sideroad, close to Yonge, on a ten acre prime industrial site worth millions, leased to the Aurora Soccer Club for  $1.00 a year.

The Town  loaned that group funds to build a club house. It was re-paid. They built the soccer field.

The club house is a licensed premise with great visibility. Umbrellas  on the patio proclaiming brands are a splash of inviting colour to the passing carriage trade. 

For years a fleet of school buses was  parked there, in full view , against terms of the lease.
 
I drew attention to that fact.The town treasurer happened to go there during office hours when the buses were on the road transporting children. He reported no orange buses in the parking lot. 

I persisted. 

The buses were eventually removed and re-appeared in the Legion parking lot. The Legion 
driveway  provides access to the soccer bubble. The  bubble site known as the Legion field was  
purchased by the town from the Legion, when their finances were tight. Not sure if that was during John West or George Timpson's time. It might have been Tim Jones. I wasn't there.

I've heard of chains across the parking lot on occasion to prohibit access to the soccer bubble. 

I don't know what the  gripe is about. 

The year of the World Soccer Tournament in South Africa , a mobile sign at the side of Vandorf welcomed all and sundry to enjoy the games and  hospitality of the club house. 

That was after the time of the beer dispensing coke machine lodged at the Aurora Fire Hall.

The  Soccer club, with a lease  of $1.00 a year from the town ,was in direct competition with tax-paying business. 

Stuff like that is the responsibility of the administration. It wasn't right. it wasn't fair. But most to the point,It certainly wasn't in accordance with a lease from the town for  acres of property at  $1.00 a year. 

But the administration,as previously pointed out, was securely under the thumbs of the Mormac crew. 
Weddings and election victory parties are celebrated at the  Soccer Club House. 

At a Council meeting, Morris in the chair,twelve soccer club members arranged themselves in the top seats in the Council Chamber, opposite my chair. Arms folded across burly chests,they stared me down,daring me to speak .
So I did. 
Soccer players are not the only bloody-minded characters in town

7 comments:

Anonymous said...


It seems to me that the town of Aurora owns a lot of land, some very valuable, and some buildings for which there appears to be little viable use.

There are many interest groups that keep clamouring for facilities, be they athletic or otherwise.

There is little coherent by way of concept, planning, budgeting, constructing. I don't believe members of council have the ability to do any of this, staff just a little bit more, and so professional planners/consultants have to be retained, always at significant cost.

And yet even after they have made their submissions nothing happens. Councillors and staff seem incapable of dealing with these, especially when the special interest groups get their teeth into them, both the plans and the councillors.

So a lot of land goes unused and many buildings sit virtually abandoned.

Are we in Aurora particularly inept?

Anonymous said...

Nah. Our neighbors to the north and south win that award. But we give them a good run for the money.

Anonymous said...



Now there's a motion to request staff to investigate bringing a roach motel to Aurora to meet the great demand for rooms.

I must be missing something.

Is this another of these "shovel ready" projects?

Anonymous said...

The Sports folks seem very reluctant to realize that The Year of Sport has passed and it is time for the town to move on.
They have been well served, too much so in my mind. Time to give others the same degree of attention for their needs.

Christopher Watts said...

It took only 20 days for the Mayor to proclaim last year the year of sport:
https://www.aurora.ca/TownHall/Pages/Mayor%20Geoffrey%20Dawe/Proclamations/Year-of-Sport.aspx

2016 is now 1/3 over, I guess it's not the year of anything.

Anonymous said...



Neither is the mayor.......

Anonymous said...

They are Thinking about it being the year of something - just cannot agree of the what.