Columnists
Preservation, demolition or what?
Sorry, still not writing. Other than impulsively writing columns late at night, I’m very relaxed.
I’m the kind of guy who likes to keep old things around. Some of us do. I’ll start with an analogy:
I went to my closet, which is jampacked with shirts. I looked, but didn’t understand the me that required so many shirts, since I wear the same seven favourite shirts each week, which has seven days and seven shirts. And they are washed every weekend, and then reappear for the next week. So why do I have 100 shirts I never wear?
I jumped in to send the other 93 shirts to Second Time Around, but I couldn’t. Every shirt I picked up had a memory, and throwing away memories is like losing your mind.
The point is: We collect things. Council is discovering things they didn’t know they had, and doesn’t know what to do with them. They can’t take unusable properties and drop them off at Second Time Around.
This is not their fault. We’ve been a County for a long, long time. Council is currently finding out they own properties they didn’t know they had. Deals that were made before every current councillor was born. (Including land at Green Point, which was designated for military purposes, and never used.) And they don’t know what to do with them.
It’s a lot like when you get an email to inform you that you have inherited a castle in your native Scotland. “Huh,” you say, “I can own a castle!” Then you find that back taxes on that castle, which has no roof, is more than you can ransom your entire family for. (I know, tough decision: Castle; entire family. Hope you make the right choice.)
BRINGING IT HOME …
Council inherited, in years gone by, a pile of properties the current Council did not know they had. As the analogy above states, “Yay! Here’s a pile of property, like an unexpected gift which stupid past Councils decided they wanted. And now it’s ours … all ours! Hah, hah on stupid past Councils.”
Not the case here. Like my closet, they can’t seem to throw anything away, even though they didn’t know they had it in the first place. And have no idea why they wanted it in the first place. My idea: Give useless property to someone who wants it. Not you, because you don’t want it or need it.
GIVING AND TAKING
I know I wrote about this years ago, but here’s a refresher.
County likes to take control. They have a faulty belief that they can run everything better than anyone. So they take charge of things they have no business grabbing.
Case in point: Our museums. They were built by potent community leaders: Dave Cole at Mariners; Harry Bisdee in Ameliasburgh; Ruth Armstrong in Wellington; Carolyn Rose in South Marysburgh and more. None of them were in it for money, but for preservation.
I remember when the County took it over. “We can make it better,” as councils do. I dealt with the first Commander of the New Order, who wanted all signs taken down, and redone in Helvetica, because that was what the Toronto Museum had ‘branded’. Good fit? Hell no. As a typographer, a Swedish-designed typeface created to be as bland as possible, so even rats could read it? Did not sit well with me. Maybe something a little more County? Reflecting our non-Swedish heritage? Our history perhaps?
The point here is: People do a really good job. If you throw away the people, not so good a job.
TAKE IT; REGRET IT
This brings us to Wellington Town Hall. It is apparently in bad shape. It is not the only property that may require intensive surgery, as Council assesses: “What did we buy into?” Which leads me to this:
Most of the Town Halls in the County were once operated by the Prince Edward District Women’s Institute and other local organizations. The stoves and fridges did not magically appear in these buildings. Kitchens were not created by unknown elves. Chairs were stacked, floors were cleaned, and garbage was collected. Because that’s what they do. Or used to do.
I have no idea why County decided to discard the volunteer work of a team that handled everything, and exchanged it for: “You’re out; we’re in.” I think it might be because the County likes to gather stuff, like the 100 shirts in my closet.
There’s also a little bit of, “We can do this better— and with much increased cost—so stand aside, and let us make things we used to get for free … cost a lot of money.”
So they take it. They take Town Halls, which were municipal buildings from the start and, like the museum takeover, find they booted out the volunteers way too soon. Town Halls. You grabbed them, you got them.
Now you have County staff working them, fixing them. Hey, wait! The very things County volunteers used to do for free! I’m not much of a businessman, but if you have people who can fix things for free, why would I want someone in charge who can charge me for the same job?
AND NOW …
We used to have people in charge who fixed things. We threw them out. Things change, and places like the WTH get assessed by some people somewhere, and the prognosis is not good.
Here’s a crazy idea! Council contacts people who furrow their brows and say, “This is going to be a $750,000 repair.” I’ve done renos on six houses, sometimes with a building permit. The most I’ve spent on materials is $1,000. (That’s back when 2x4s were 99¢!) I do that because I am ‘people’ and people can get the job done, without Council and the enormous hoops they need to jump through, to do a simple job.
We need to turn the work over to the people. Council has a building it doesn’t want, but won’t give up. We have the expertise in the amazing variety of skilled County people willing to help.
TWO DISPARATE THOUGHTS
County wants control of all the things it inherited over the years. That was then, this is now. Time to let go. Like my 100 shirts, sometimes you need to find a new place for them.
We are losing the very thing that makes us strong. Community. I’ve watched County people take on insurmountable tasks, and succeed. We look to Council, but there is no one there to guide us. A good team can solve the problem fast. The bad team will load on piles of regulations and liability sign-offs, assign a consultant study, ask for a staff report, table that report, ask for another report, and then, with any luck, the building will have collapsed by then.
I’ve seen local business people do a lot more with a lot less. Turn us loose.
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