Glad you found some humour in this.
Posted by Anonymous to Our Town and Its Business at 4 July 2016 at 21:38
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Is that what it looks like ....an amusing yarn. Ah! would that it were !
It's typical of our town affairs for the past thirteen years.
Councils came and went...bald-faced promises were made....but the story never changed..
Developers are everybody's favourite whipping boys.
"All they care about is making money" .
Like success in business means not caring about the bottom line.
Like a municipality is a philanthropic organisation ...not a business.
Residents want what they want no matter the cost or who pays and Councillors behave like they
have no other obligation but to give them everything and get themselves re-elected.
Residents in the north-east quadrant wanted to live in the town core with no traffic on their streets.
Chicanes, dead-ends, bumps in the road were but a few impediments demanded to discourage
everybody else from using roads they paid for.
Everything on the wish list provided at a cost of $211,000 over and above re-construction costs
of a million dollars.
Gridlock at the main intersection is a direct consequence but nobody talks about that.That cat must stay in the bag.
Another resident yearned to host piano recitals. The former Mayor made that mistake wish come true. A $3million newly renovated state-of-the-art museum was turned over, rent free with a million dollars annual funding for "the arts" . To this day, the same deal continues.
A cell tower, legally constructed in a neighboring municipality was framed in a window. Oh horrors!
The house was newly listed .Despite advice from in -house legal counsel and a second opinion from outside, right to the bitter end, Councillors were prepared to expend tens of thousands in legal fees to
petition a court to have it removed.
$5 million dollars are currently budgeted for a "wild life reserve" in a small enclave surrounded by houses,people, children,cats and dogs. The wildest life likely are rabbits and raccoons. A fence would keep people out but animals would be allowed to roam.
The proponent hopes the town will pay $2 million more to buy land intended for human habitat
because human habitat ,in an urban setting, would be "catastrophic" to the concept of a wild life reserve.
Three years ago about the time of Three Kings , three trees could not be removed to allow a family with three teen-agers , move out of a hotel, into their home for Christmas . A neighbour could not imagine life without a view of trees not his. Councillors could not bring themselves to disappoint the neighbour.
A six acre development site was removed from the market and a park is to be installed at the cool cost of millions, to prevent homes from being built on the land in a residential neighbourhood.
The list is endless . New items are added regularly.
Nothing, absolutely nothing, no matter how selfish and outrageous, is beyond consideration.
Councillor Humfrey's generosity with public resources is very much appreciated.
Oh yes, and the town leased away for thirty years, property needed for our own purposes to the Feds and then paid them half a million for the mouldy, contaminated shed they vacated .for which we had no identified need.
None of it was done in secret. All of it, solemnly,soberly and proudly discussed and decided in public.
Like it made sense.
The council chambers were regularly full of citizen enforcers with demands and opposition to development of a former golf course
Am I rolling on the floor laughing out loud?
Oh Dearrie me no!
Am I weeping into my barley broth, no,not that either.
I am just the storyteller with ready-made plots and personalities.
AAARRGH.
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4 comments:
A municipality is NOT a business, it's a community.
Possibly pathetic is the operative word, not humorous.
If you've got it you will spend it.
Heads full of cotton wool, nary a brain in sight.
Your right! Who cares about money!! Let's just do away with the budget. When some one wants something...build it, give it, and take it. It's all about the quality of life for all in the community.
You overlook mice and rats in your wildlife list.
They too need a "place of their own" - free from the intrusion of people.
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