With the summer nearly upon us, it seems that certain members of Wasaga Beach Council have already taken a bit too much sun. We had my old pal, Mayor Cal Patterson make the national news a couple of months ago when he said at a Chamber event that if he was a tourist coming to Wasaga Beach, he would stay at Blue Mountain. He was also the centre of attention leading up to the Federal Election when he freely allowed his signature stamp to be used on a letter of endorsement for our new MP, Dr. Kellie Leitch, then he went around with his head in the sand denying that he approved the letter. Anyway these two incidents are in the past, but they were fun to comment on.
Fast forward to more recent events, our town has, or will be losing several local businesses. First we had Meridian Credit Union close up shop and move their operation to Collingwood, our local rag, the Wasaga Sun moved their office out of town to Stayner. Ok what's up with that one? The local paper is does not even have an office in town. Then it was announced that 97.7 the beach would be moving to the old Peak FM studios on Hwy. 26 in Collingwood, and Giant Tiger will be leaving town at the end of August. I would like to touch on 97.7 the beach for a bit.
I said it awhile back that they would be leaving town to set-up shop in Collingwood before it was public knowledge, and I heard through the grapevine that they were not pleased with my announcement. Well it was true as we all know now, and I also said that in time they would be changing their name, and we'll have to see a year or 2 down the road if that becomes true as well.
Well last week the management of the radio station made a presentation to town council about all that they have done for our town, and blah, blah, blah, how they support local business. Ya right!! I will give credit where credit is due, and Stan Wells blew his stack, and he had every reason to do so. It was the previous council who stood by the radio station with letters to the CRTC in support of having a radio station set-up shop in Wasaga Beach, and then they turn around and screw us all because they say that the location they had was too small. I bet that if they approached the owner of StoneBridge he would have been happy to give them the space they need, and if not StoneBridge, then I'm sure another person would have come forward. After their presentation to council, Mayor Patterson told them not to ask or expect any endorsement letters from this council...Unless of course you are running for the local Conservative nomination and need an endorsement from the Mayor, and Warden who loves to rubber stamp all letters of endorsement himself...
I always get a kick reading the Wasaga Sun to see what our elected members of council are up to these days, and this weeks edition had a good article from Trina Berlo about a new committee called "Beach Visioning Committee". This new committee will help create a vision for our beach area and so you must be asking yourself, how were the members of the committee chosen? Well the council member's name was drawn from a glass, yes it's not a misprint, they put the names of Council members Stan Wells, Ron Anderson, and Nina Bifolchi into a glass, and the winner was Ron Anderson, the self declared business guru of Wasaga Beach. Ron Anderson will sit on the committee with the town's CAO and Economic Development Officer, who both don't even live in Wasaga Beach. Then a rep. from the towns Parks and Facilities Department, Planning and Devlopment Department, Ontario Parks, and a member of the Chamber of Commerce, Mr. Henning Geiler, who is not a big fan of mine, because I ran against his buddy Cal Patterson, and I'm outspoken on several issues. I guess he won't be sending me a Christmas card this year, or any year for that matter.
So we have a member of council, town staff, and an unknown member of the Chamber sitting on a committee that will help create a vision for our beach area. OK, is it me, or am I missing something here...Why don't we have local residents on this committee?, why don't we have local successful business owners on this committee? I guess if you suck up to our mayor, then you get a seat at the table. It should be interesting to see what vision they come up with, and let's hope it's not an indoor ski hill, or a monorail system!
Finally I read some of the letters to the editor in the Wasaga Sun, and we had a resident who was upset with the Mayor because the owner of the Dome wants to get seating for 1500 people at the Dome so he can serve liquor this summer. However for this to happen he needs to build proper washrooms, and not use portable washrooms. The Mayor has instructed town staff to make this happen, and one would ask why would the Mayor get involved in this issue? well it's because the owner of the Dome donated to the Mayors election campaign and I guess it's payback time!
Until next time!!
Well written Steve. You really put the political pieces of the puzzle together quite well. But I have to ask the question. Where is the outrage of the local residents? One would think the local media would have a pageful of comments about all this. What's up with that?
ReplyDeleteSteven
The Wasaga Sun gets a ton of advertising dollars from the town so they won't be as negative. The "Beach" radio station gets advertising dollars from the county so they won't be as negative. The local residents don't seem to care, and if you own a business in town and speak out, then the idiots at the Chamber usually blacklist you. I had the President of the Chamber, Glenn who after the municipal election tell people not to do business with me. Glenn being a failed real estate broker failed to understand that I don't own a business in town...That's the crappy we have to put up....
Peter
It's no wonder the trend of local business is to look elsewhere to run their business and a place to live. Wasaga Beach was more fun when I was younger than it is today! I use to take my son and his friends by boat over to the beach areas. We would swim onto the beach, have lunch their, visit the shops and use the water slide ride It's all disappearing. What's left, really? Maybe you should leave there too buddy. Time to move to a place where challenging and questioning things may be annoying to some, but not result in business suicide.
I said it last week. This one road town is soon to only be a one way street and that one way will be out of town.
ReplyDeleteSetting up a planning committee made up of members that have halted progress in the past and giving the mayor veto power seems redundant to me. This is a facade to make the people believe that their tax monies are being used for the powers of progress. In this town, people want progress but they don't want change.
What I find funny Chris is that you approached the town to help them increase their on-line exposure and they turned you down. Now they are bringing on board a committee via the chamber to help increase the towns in-line exposure..WTF..
ReplyDeleteMy take on this is that if you are a supporter of Mayor Cal Patterson then you get to sit on a committee, and if you donated to his campaign you get special treatment if you need a favour. It pays to kiss butt in a small town like Wasaga Beach.