While the Moody Park neighborhood is probably giving a sigh of relief, the spectacle that has been the Moody Park Pool fiasco got even stranger yet.
The issue was decided at Council at last Monday's meeting, in camera. Yes you read right. In Camera.
It makes you wonder when you hear the constant drivel from Mayor Wane-Rite and his echo Bill Harper go on and on regarding how open and transparent this council is.
As demonstrated by Chris Bell, Nell Grond and the Moody Park Pool group, the design selected is out of date, over-priced, and does not meet the needs of the community. Nevertheless, the city soldiered on.
Recently, after doing its own research, Voice asked the city to come in with a reduced cost for the pool. The city responded. They capped the cost at $3.3M. Voice expressed it's approval and appreciation.
Then last Monday, undercover went this committed to transparency group. They deliberated and voted on the issue under the cover of night. Only later, at the insistence of Councilor McIntosh did the issue fully come out.
We now know one of the reasons why the estimates Voice received were considerably lower than those of the city. The city factored in 6000 sq. ft. for ancillary buildings. When that issue was discussed at the council meeting, nobody could remember the square footage of the previous buildings. Did that stop this august group from voting, so that they could get the needed information.
Heck no, the tax and spend crowd prevailed.
By our estimates, the square footage is triple what is needed. Generally, at pools, to maximize wall space, outbuildings do not exceed 20 feet in width.
Does that mean we will see a building 300 feet long?
The most telling aspect of the evening was when the mayor asked the representative from Task Construction how many pools they had built (you'd think he would know the answer to that before Task was selected). The answer given by the consultant was, in the area of 8 to 10. How many outdoor pools had they built? The answer was none, there had never been call for one.
Over at the School Board, the Province stepped in and halted the construction of the High School because it was over-priced. Unfortunately, there is no one to save us from incompetent leadership at the city level.
Reach in your pockets folks, New West is striving to be number one, the highest taxed authority in the Metro region.
And we are well on our way.
c.c.
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2 comments:
I guess once we get all those tax dollars from Harper and Wright's garbage burner we'll be able to afford the pool. Let's build two, one an outdoor pool and one for the other 9 months of the year.
Wait a second, we're not sure we're going to get a penny from Metro Vancouver for being the region's dumping ground. Hmm, better rethink that plan. Oh, well we can just raise taxes some more.
With all of the development in New Westminster are there no develpoment cost levies or community ammenity contributions that developers pay in other municipalities that would help pay for things like the pool?
Have we in New West just thrown open the doors for them to profit while I pay increasing taxes to try and build the infrastructure that they need to seel their units.
The Mayor and Council need to be held accountable. Could you not make a comparison of what other municipalities collect for instance in the East Fraser Lands of south east Vancouver I understand there was a comprehensive package from the developer. Seems that only a few kilometers down the river things are done differently with little cost to the existing taxpayer.
Please why are we seeling out???
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