BIA SEEKS TO EXPAND ITS BORDERS

Renfrew’s downtown Business Improvement Area is expanding, pushing its borders outwards into the ancillary streets, or streets secondary to the main drag of Raglan Street.

This is no small thing, especially if you happen to live, and/or do business within this tertiary area that is now to be annexed by this entity that derives its authority through Renfrew Town Council, and through them from the Municipal Act of 2001.

My assertion that the Municipal Act is a deeply flawed piece of legislation is not abated by recent events, and this is just another one of those recent events under discussion. It makes me wonder if the authors of that piece of legislation had drafted it while at their local pub, since it causes as many problems as it sets out to solve, and satisfies the argument that the crafters were either egregiously distracted, had agendas to satisfy, or were just functionally incompetent.

The BIA invasion into the surrounding environs is another one of those seemingly endless staff-driven things that appears before a somewhat perplexed Council for approval, almost after-the-fact, because the timelines tend to be pretty tight.  I wonder what the actual reasoning is?

Is the tax levy that members pay into the organization not enough to fund their projects?  Is it an attempt to broaden their tax base to beef up their financials?

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SAY GOODBYE TO THE CHERRY BLOSSOM

News arrived this morning that Chocolate maker Hershey will be discontinuing the venerable Cherry Blossom candy from its lineup.

This is like Santa Clause retiring.

I haven’t had one of these things in a long while, a good long while, but I can still remember the sheer luxury of flavour associated with this confection.

Packaged in its iconic yellow box, the Cherry Blossom was the top branch of the candy tree, as it featured the kind of chocolate you’d find on a really good Easter Bunny and combined it with a Maraschino cherry to deliver a gooey, syrupy, explosion of, well, chocolate and cherry.

This was the apex predator of chocolate treats.  A person would have one, and only one of these before requiring an angioplasty.  Even as kids, we showed an appropriate level pf respect for what it could do to you, and like I said, we were kids, who had no problem stuffing ourselves with candy until we puked.  Yet we respected the Cherry Bomb.

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RENFREW WEATHER

When it comes to weather in Renfrew, I’d have to say that we’re kind of blessed in a way, even though I’m looking outside at a sky that seems determined to drop something I’m not really looking for.

Sure, Renfrew is about as one could expect, weather-wise, from a community that can be classified as occupying a central, southern, eastern part of the province.  We seem to go the way others around us go, but then again, not perfectly so.

If the southern province is getting rain, then we’re getting rain.  If they get snow, we can expect snow as well.  When it’s hot it’s hot, and when it’s cold it’s cold.

That said, we seem to exist in a bit of a weather sweet-spot, or niche zone, where despite weather similarities with our neighbours far and wide, we seem to experience the same things as they do, only to a degree, and that’s not a weather pun.

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RECUSALS AND LAME DUCK COUNCILS

Comments made by Councillor Andrew Dick in a previous council meeting resulted in an investigation by the town’s Integrity Commissioner, an investigation resulting in a recommendation that the councillor offer a public apology and receive a censure from Council.

I’ve seen Councillor Dick’s comments in text form, but have not reviewed the YouTube record of the meeting in question.

In question at the time was a contract tendered for renovations undertaken at the Town Hall, a project that ballooned in cost and went significantly over budget.

At issue was the fact that a councillor at the time, one Arlene Jamieson, owned a decor business in town, Venture Interiors, that had put a bid in to undertake some of the work on the Town Hall.  It’s important to point out that Councillor Jamieson declared herself to be in conflict, and did not participate in any approvals specific to her business. It should also be noted that former Councillor Jamieson did nothing wrong, nor anythng illegal or untoward.

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INTEGRITY COMMISSIONER REPORT

I’m going to hate writing this.

Mostly because it will fly in the face of what everyone else likely thinks.  It’s not like I’m looking to be contrary for the sake of being contrary.  And I don’t do it lightly.

This has been percolating in my mind for 36 hours now, and I know I could have left it alone and see it wash downstream, but then again, I also knew I couldn’t.

No offence intended towards anyone.

Tuesday night, Integrity Commissioner Tony Fleming attended Council via Zoom and delivered his findings on two separate complaints filed under the Council Code of Conduct.  His presentation was professional and coherent, and everything you’d want to see from someone tasked with the resolution of these complaints.

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THIRD PARTY REPORT: SCRATCHING THE SURFACE

In a previous article I referred to the Third Party Report by WSCS Consulting into the Ma-Te-Way situation as a flawed document.

I should be clear that in no way am I questioning the integrity of the authors of the document, nor am I diminishing the level of rigour, depth, and detail that was put into what was, essentially, a very difficult job.  I want to make sure that I come across as applauding the work done, and the report proffered.

There can be no such thing as a perfect document because there’s no such thing as a perfect investigator, author, or subject matter, all involving three heavily involving human elements.  In the case of this report, it’s the third part, the subject part, that made the compilation of information and the cobbling together of that information more than just your average challenge.  It made it virtually impossible to get down to the absolute brass tacks of the issue, although the authors did successfully pull back the curtain on much of what transpired in what has to be the Town of Renfrew’s biggest debacle ever.

One needs to be careful when bandying about allegations regarding others, and that need for care can often lead to an extraordinary level of caution when attempting to report on items that may involve measures of incompetence, negligence, and malfeasance.  And sometimes that can lead to a report that hovers around the periphery rather than drilling into the potentially dangerous areas.  This report navigates those difficulties about as well as one might hope for.

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COUNCIL BACK IN CHAMBERS

It’s been a long layoff, with council stuff sort of taking a back seat here over the course of the holidays, but with the arrival of the second full week of the month, open council meetings are now part of the crunch.

And they’ll start with a bit of a crunch if the most recent agenda is any indication of what may happen when we all convene in chambers this evening.

Two cases being investigated by the Integrity Commissioner will have reports delivered, one involving Councillor Andrew Dick, and the other Reeve Peter Emon.

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LISA ROBINSON: UGLINESS IN MUNICIPAL POLITICS

There’s probably a lot of different ways in which to view somebody like Lisa Robinson, and I have made that attempt, but in the end, it’s always pretty much the same for me.  That is to say that, if I were to ever meet the woman, I’m fairly confident I wouldn’t like her.  And I’m equally confident she wouldn’t be lining up to join my fan club either.

Lisa Robinson is a councillor for the City of Pickering, just northeast of Toronto.  When I see or hear about people like her, it makes me want to offer up prayers of thanks for the elected members of Renfrew Town Council that we have.  As critical as I can sometimes be, there is nothing on offer here in Renfrew that can be considered as approaching what Robinson is to Pickering.

In a charitable rendering, I’d put her on the same footing as your Marjorie Taylor-Greenes, or your Lauren Boberts, Sarah Palins, or Kari Lakes of the political universe.  Maybe even a Cheryl Gallant type of figure, although that’s cruel.

A mean-spirited, sneering, and unnecessarily provocative human being bent upon one thing and one thing alone, that being the political chaos she sews that serves as her preferred working environment.  There is nothing sacred when it comes to these women, in that they’ll attack you at the drop of a pin yet cry indignant persecution if ever confronted or challenged.

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OTTAWA VALLEY RESCUE

There is no shortage of heroes in society, and they come from a variety of different places, different occupations, and different backgrounds.

Today I’d like to highlight the people who volunteer their time towards animal rescue operations here and elsewhere.  Locally, that would be the Ottawa Valley Rescue.  Included in that are the people who take on the role of fosters for animals in the process of transitioning to what is hoped to be a permanent home.

Not every animal involved with this organization arrived there as a result of neglect or abuse.  That said, it’s shockingly troubling to learn just how many of them are from a challenging background like this.  Equally troubling is the total attitude of disregard that many people have for domestic animals, and it’s the Rescue that has taken on the responsibility for the rehabilitation of the animal where the goal is a permanent and loving home.

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BEACH PARTY AT THE ARMOURIES

For the record, the sign is announcing an impending Beach Party.

When you’re walking down a sidewalk fighting off a windchill of -25°, just about anything associated with the concept of warmth sounds like a good deal.

As Canadian as I am, and as durable a soul as I like to think that I am, the idea of beach sand and waves lapping along the shoreline does the heart a kindness.  The cruelty comes with the knowledge that I’m apparently the only person in all of Canada who doesn’t take a winter vacation of some sort down south.

I guess somebody’s got to stay back and keep those driveways cleared, the fires burning, the economy pumping along.  So, if you were ever wondering, that’s me.  I do all of that.  While you go south.

This past week has been plenty cold, so the sign was a beacon straight into my heart.  A Beach Party, right here in Renfrewtown, at the Armouries.  A place for me to go if the Canadian winter gets to weigh on me a little too much for my liking.  But my thinking is, who else will be there if the rest of you are all off in Florida, Arizona, the Carolinas, Mexico, Cuba, Jamaica, and all those other places in the Caribbean, South Pacific, and along the Mediterranean?  Like, who’s left?

It doesn’t really matter, I guess, so long as they have a pavilion where you can sit in a lawn chair and have one of those machine-gun sprinklers pound away at you.  Now that I don’t smoke anymore, that sounds like it would be fun.  It was a bitch when you were trying to enjoy a dart with the experience.

A bit of frisbee toss would be nice, I guess, although I’m roughly forty years removed from my last frisbee toss, which may well be the makings of a night at RVH.  Perhaps I’ll leave the frisbee for the young ones.

I don’t drink anymore.  How in the hell am I supposed to enjoy all of this without drinking?  I mean, c’mon!  Do I just sit there with a fake smile and a little cup with an umbrella sticking out of it, and maybe a little straw?  That’s not the beach I remember.

Don’t get me wrong here, I’m absolutely grateful this event is planned.  And I’ll bet it’s a real winner, no reason to think otherwise.

Colourful attire, calypso music, the Beach Boys here and there, maybe even some of that old Dick Clark style dancing on the beach action, where I feel I’d really shine.  I’ll bet it’ll be a lot of fun.

I guess for me, though, it might be necessary to not draw on my past beach experiences and attempt to translate them to this beach experience.  I do, however, need to keep in mind that it’s the beach and the people that are the two critical elements.  All the rest of it is decoration.  

So if I can master that, I ought to be okay.

COVER PHOTO: Image by quanghieu_st1 from Pixabay

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