As a human being and a mother.. we teach our kids not to touch ppl’s stuff.. especially those in the store.. in case they get damaged.  Even I, myself take care of other’s stuff.. when i wanna try them out.. but these ppl are sure rough on our things.. and i cannot imagine.. how they treat their own things.

Obviously, this is weird to me lah.. !!!  it makes me think they are up to something.. or they are in love with the man or something.. muahahahhahaha!!!  But can’t they just take a picture of the store..  or of their mother..?? or kids that were in..???  why the man..???  You say strange or not..??

I can bet that person who wrote the above.. does not have all the above stakes..  but WE DO..!!!  if the town needs to put up money for the Farmer’s market building.. shouldn’t the ppl have a say..?? not only downtown.. but the ppl in this town..???   Sure the person who wrote that on the local papers is very eloquent and a older member of this community.. but like i said.. DOES HE HAVE A STAKE IN DOWNTOWN..???  if he doesn’t .. maybe he should listen to us .. the downtown business ppl.. who had put all and everything .. they have .. into this downtown business..??

The new airlines came into town.. and they got the free flight to the city.. ??  *roll eyes* .. but all these were not even offered to anyone else.. except for the councilors..??  some ppl cannot afford to buy Stimerex ES and yet.. the councilors can spend a good $15K for a vacation..?? so where’s the report..??  Should I hunt it down..??  Is there a point..??  is this town doomed..??

These are the ppl who runs our town.  These are the ppl whom we depend on to make this town a better place not only for us .. but for our future generation.  Looking very prosperous .. might I add .. some may need some diet pills really soon, if they continue to not do anything but sit and look nice.  Last year the ppl of this town took a stand.. and voted against quite a number of old town councilors in hope for a better future.. in hope of better leadership.  In hope of better accountability, in hope of transparency .. in hope of some good heads on the shoulder of ppl whom we can look up to.  In hope of a voice for us.. and not for themselves or their cronies.

6 months into the new councilors and a new mayor, we in my humble opinion has a invisible mayor.. who never even acknowledged me when i passed him on the street .. during Christmas last year.  Most of them.. i haven’t seen, except for the deputy mayor and Ken Langille who had answered a few emails.. from the spouse.

Have we elected the wrong team to represent us..?? sure we know that changes takes time.. and it cannot be done overnite.. but what had they done so far..?? except to have taken a trip that cost the tax payer’s money of ONLY $15k .. and i heard one even brought his son for the trip.. supposedly for some convention with the federal ppl..??  they are back.. but are they gonna give us an accountability report..??  i’ve yet to see any of it.. in the last 10 yrs of my stay in this town.  And it looks like I’m not the only one who ain’t too, too happy about the new councilors.

A group of citizens confronted Yarmouth Town Council last evening with angry words. They’re upset over a proposal for the residential development of the Milton school property. Spokesperson Susan Hood presented council with a 1267 name petition, demanding the peoperty be developed as a recreational park. The group accused council of being short sighted in dictating its will against the wishes of the community. Councillor Ken Langille said he was offended by the tone of the message.  Residents argued the Milton school property has served as a playground since 1864.  Council has agreed to call a public meeting on the issue next month.

]]> http://www.babybokchoi.com/2009/06/short-sighted/feed/ http://www.babybokchoi.com/2009/06/municipality-building-money-wasted/ http://www.babybokchoi.com/2009/06/municipality-building-money-wasted/#comments Mon, 08 Jun 2009 16:04:04 +0000 mamabok http://www.babybokchoi.com/?p=3499

This is the municipality building that is outta town now .. and build for like $6million dollars.  The building that the ppl outta town refused to have it.. but they still broke grown.. and had it up and running before the justice center at south end was build.

This building houses like 13 employees .. and in October 2007, the local papers reported that even though there were concerns by other town councils.. they were out voted and they even broke ground.. when there was a roomful of residents opposing the building.

The Municipality of Yarmouth will proceed with plans to build a much debated and much-talked-about new office building at the site of the former Hebron School.

Council voted 4-2 at last Wednesday night’s regular meeting to accept the lowest tender of $4.89 million from Delmar Construction, the only local firm to bid on the project. With the motion to approve was an instruction to the project architect to keep the cost of the project at or below $4.5 million before taxes. The highest of three tenders received for the project was $6 million from Pomerleau Construction.

Councillors Ken Crosby and Gilles Robichaud, the two councillors who voted against the motion, both said the project was too expensive to support and that not enough research was put into other possible project sites or options.

Robichaud suggested that rather than using the Hebron site, the new building could be located in the municipality’s industrial park. He said it would serve as good advertising to prospective businesses if they see that the municipality feels good enough about the park to locate there themselves. He also said the cost of water hook-up and architect fees should be included in the project cost.

At the end of the day, said Robichaud, due diligence was not done on the project because a full study and proper review was never completed.

For Crosby’s part, the price tag was just too high. He said he was not prepared to go beyond the initial project figure of $2.5- $3 million. He said he is yet to be convinced that a high-quality building could not be constructed for that figure.

“We’ve done no exploring and we’re sitting here with a price tag of $4.8 million,” he said. Crosby was also concerned that, while at the moment council is in a position to handle the cost of the project, there could come a time when things might get tight financially and such a cost could become a burden.

“Let’s not put all our eggs in one basket,” he said.

But as the vote shows, the opinions of Crosby and Robichaud were those of the minority and not shared by Warden Bryan Smith, Deputy Warden Brian Noble and councillors Leland Anthony and Daniel Muise. Councillor Staley Goodwin did not attend the meeting.

Noble, the most vocal supporter of the project from day one, said that while he “laboured with this decision,” he always returned to the Hebron site as the best plan.

“I want something that the residents would be proud of, that our council would be proud of,” he said. “The cost is high — I accept that . . . Any new building today is going to be expensive.”

Noble also expressed concern that if the building were to go in the industrial park, they would not be able to control what other businesses might set up around them. The deputy warden worried that something like a sawmill or cement plant could set up shop next to their office in the 75-acre business park that already includes Register.com and CSC.

Leland Anthony said that while the price of the project is higher than his self-imposed limit of $3.6- $3.8 million, he said the municipality would reap the benefits of the extra $1 million.

“The price tag is well worth the bucks that this municipality will have to spend to build it,” he said.

Anthony said the new building, which he called “a show-stopper,” is forward thinking and would be relevant well into the future.

The future also played into Smith’s decision to support the project.

“You can be progressive, regressive or stay the same,” he said, adding that with this project they are building for 20 years down the road.

Smith said that while he did consider the industrial park as a possible alternate location, the project architect talked him out of it. He said a lack of security in the park as well as the issue of forcing residents to contend with traffic there when they go to the municipal office to conduct business, doesn’t make for a good location.

When council discussed the building at their last meeting, Muise was the most uncertain about how he would vote, saying that he would wait to see the final tender before making his decision.

Though he said the price was high, he said supporting the project was the right move. He said as he trusted the people he elected to make decisions on buildings such as the new justice centre, correctional facility and school board office, residents of the municipality must trust their councillors to make this decision for them.

“People are elected to make these hard decisions,” he said. “Waiting longer (to build the new office) is going to cost more.”

Staff for the municipality said the building would be paid for over 30 years and would not have an impact on the tax rate or the municipality’s ability to undertake other capital projects on an annual basis. The future sale of the courthouse could also be used to help pay for the project.

This was the first time i saw the new municipality building yesterday.  And you know what..??  I felt so sad.. with that $6million dollars, the town could have helped the school, could have building an art center.. could have build a community center - like the ones we have back home.  But nope.. they only wanna take care of themselves.  They do no shit for anyone of us here.. not us . .not our children.. nor our future generation.  They really should take a page from the Singapore government.

14 November 2007

Ground was officially broken Wednesday at the site of the new office building for the Municipality of Yarmouth.

“I’ve always said nothing happens until you see an excavator on the job. Well, you saw a shovel on the job,” said Warden Bryan Smith moments after pitching a gold coloured shovel into the ground where students once attended Hebron School.

Smith said formal work at the site should begin the same day as the sod turning with overfill going to the long-delayed soccer field at the bottom of the hill. Although construction was once eyed to begin in October, Smith said he thinks the new building could be complete by early 2009.

The new building is one of the most controversial issues to hit the municipality in some time. Much debate and outcry has come since talk that the building could cost more than $5 million. Council approved a price tag of $4.5 million before taxes and not including architect fees.

This decision was favoured over renovating the court house building or scaling the project back to the originally proposed price of $2.5 million. The fact that much of the project’s planning happened with little to no fanfare or notice to, and inclusion of, the general public is also a sore spot for many, a matter most councillors now admits was a mistake.

Smith said that although people are still sending the municipality and The Vanguard letters opposing council’s decision to proceed with the building without taking more time to examine the matter, he hopes they will eventually come around.

“You would hope that they do,” said Smith, “but I think it’s like anything else in life — not everybody agrees with what you do. I mean, look at solid waste, for example. What percentage is not even abiding by the bylaws of what we’re supposed to do?”

When council awarded the tender for the project to Delmar Construction last month it did so with the stipulation that the price be kept at or below $4.5 million (Delmar’s bid was $4.89 million). Smith said that directive was followed and that they are also looking at the possibility of accessing funding for the high tech in-ground heating system through the province’s Department of Energy.

But having said that.. we have had lots of goodwill with other store owners..like the ppl from Well Fargos.. who gave so generously to the brat’s Penny For Playground and so did the hair shop.. and the gift store. .and the ladies at the craft store.. the christian book store. .and the gals at Tim’s .. they each gave like $10 .. and Toots.. of course.. the deputy mayor is really, really nice to the brat.  I remembered the day she was born.. he gave $50 to chloe.  Now that’s very nice.. isn’t he.

So yes.. despite having to deal with the 1 % of idiot customers.. there are a lot to look forward to . .downtown.  Our lease comes up in November this year.. and we are seriously contemplating about moving to Starrs Road…  but with all these nice neighbours surrounding us..it’s hard to make the decision right..??  So we’ll see what the other place has to offer.