Thanksgiving 06

As friend Bill intoned our collective thanks to the Creator for the Thanksgiving dinner that included all the traditional fixings, from tame turkey to wild cranberries, to pumpkin pie with a side of chocolate birthday cake, my mind wandered (as it is wont to do during prayers) from the thanking of having friends with whom to share the meal, to the pre-dinner conversation. I hoped somewhere in the City that someone was remembering to give thanks for the great work done by our councillors over the past three years.

At election time, we sometimes focus on promises of things to be done, not on the successes of the past term. For instance, the good job council did in getting a five-year contract with CUPE that has assured services and paycheques for the city workers. That same foresight to get a long contract somehow seems to have been misplaced when it came to settling with the men and women in ball caps, but perhaps over the next four years, the new council will get it right.

Then there is the placing of the rail lands levy on the tax bill so we can all appreciate and remember the good planning by previous councils that is now bearing fruit. The whole waterfront and downtown area finally seems to be in a period of resurrection. Perhaps in the next four years the council of the day will somehow note the great job done by council in forcing the province to up their share to the hospital funding. Assuming we have a new hospital built by a consortium that has figured out how to bid on a 35-year contract. That rail land experience might help the hospital board, as 35 years seems to be a reasonable term to complete projects.

Many citizens are no doubt giving thanks that the vacant land sell-off is almost complete. The reserve coffers are now full, the credit rating improved, and we have to thank the huge tax windfall from the land sales for this. This was good planning, aside from the Pinewood and Graniteville hiccups, we only lost one waterfront access and a few backyard gardens and play-lots. The old CN rail right-of-way will soon be full of homes, and with any luck, this tax-base growth will save the Otter Lake property for parkland for future generations.

There should be much appreciation for the implementation of the city signs that promoted our noteworthy citizens. The aerial ballet by Steve was nice, but that project somehow got downgraded to welcome pictures of returning sons and daughters in the newspaper. In a similar cost-saving effort, the council decided not to print the farewell pictures of all the young people who had to leave the city to find work. Plans for signs welcoming visitors to our fair town will be considered once the correct population is determined by the census. Thankfully, our leading citizen placed a welcome sign on Fisher Street to greet our visitors.

We should all be thankful for the additional monies expended on our infrastructure. More money was spent on roads this past year than ever before. This had nothing to do with inflation, but in the good planning by council, as only modest tax increases were needed to fund this. Yet somehow, they forgot to patch the pavement at the intersection of Main West and Nipissing. But what is another six months of our city Transit buses pounding over that mess?

Speaking of roads, we should be thankful for all the thought given to renaming the Old Ferguson Highway as 411. It is too bad that it does not qualify as a “4” series road because it does not have a median from Orillia to Gravenhurst. Maybe they will call it 3 ½ Eleven. Or perhaps Via Mendicino, acknowledging that Caesar’s boys could have built it faster, and at the same time giving credit for the tenacity of some councillors in bugging the MPP.

We have to be thankful for the good job the council did in reigning in costs associated with the ABCs. These Agencies, Boards and Commissions were totally out of control, even if it did require a lawsuit against the Conservation Authority and now the Health Unit. Fortunately, the citizenry will never see the costs of the litigation, nor the balance sheets of these related bodies.

Downtown visitors should be especially thankful that the old parking meters are gone. The on-street parking ban anywhere within walking distance of the downtown may have offset the convenience of finding the Pay and Display machines, but this is called progress.

No doubt, there was a thankful sigh of relief when it was announced that the Heritage Festival ran a surplus this year. It must have been all the behind-the-scenes work by our elected officials that gave this result, although some thanks must be given to Albert for forecasting the good weather on Festival weekend. This money will go a long ways towards the write-off of the previous years, assuming the funds are returned to the city coffers.

A special thank you is needed for the foresight in giving the Ferris swampland to the Airbase Properties marketing group. The new businesses that will eventually come to the city on highway 3 ½ 11 will be cause for much celebration. In all probability, this same group can market The Hole to a computer company that does not realize that the best security for data is having alternate systems and data copies in different locations. This company may be in the market for used Police Department monitors, as they will still glow in the darkness of the Hole.

Seriously, we ought to thank ourselves for doing a good job in electing the people who served us so well in the past three years. They actually did a pretty good job.

(And Bill, as I type this at 4 a.m., I hope you did not throw out those coffee grounds – they are good for another two or three pots! Teaspoons, not Tablespoons.)