BUMBOOT POLKAROO

Nuff said, right?

LAST POST

Last post of 2009.

See you in the New Year.

SUNDAY IS FUN DAY

Lets add to Lowndes wet dream and help him name his new kingdom....after all, it appears he wants to own all of Melancthon and he is practially running Melancthon Council meetings, so he should get the privilege of giving it a new name:

Here are a few to get you started:

Municipality of Mikey

Jurisdiction of John

Region of Limestone Ridge

I would expect when he gets his fortress built, it will have to have a dry moat, because of course there won't be any water.

And he will need a powerful air exchanger because of the dust...just some thoughts.

Have some fun and add your own.

SHUT THE BARN DOOR BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE...OOPS, TOO LATE

Dates on which citizens expressed grave concerns to their elected officials regarding the demolition of houses in Melancthon by Highland Companies:

August 2008; June 2009; July 27, 2009; August 13, 2009, November 25, 2009. Action taken by Council –NONE.

What did Highlands continue to do-demolish home after home after home. To date they have taken out 17 burn permits.

What could Council have done to stop this? As they were advised over and over and over again they could simply pass a bylaw under section 33 of the Planning Act, which in a nutshell states, that prior to receiving a demolition permit, a building permit must have been issued. In other words if you take something down you have to replace it with something else.

But suddenly at their December 17, 2009 meeting of Council, they decide to take a look at passing a bylaw under Section 33 of the Planning Act. They are asking for comments to be submitted to them on or before January 4, 2010.

Lets review, shall we?

Council had the option to pass this bylaw months and months ago BEFORE Lowndes demolished just under 20 homes, and in fact residents were BEGGING them to. It seemed almost as if Council waited until Highlands were done with their seek and destroy mission before passing the bylaw.

I believe in their minds they think they have managed to keep everyone happy. They can say to the ratepayers see, we passed the bylaw that you wanted. And they can still rest assured that by putting off passing the bylaw that Highlands is happy, because by delaying the passing of the bylaw, it gave Highlands the time to demolish houses on everything they own, without having to comply with the pesky bylaw to stop what they were doing.

Don't worry about picking up the pace Johnny and Mikey enjoy your Xmas break. By the time this Council gets around to actually passing the bylaw you should have everything single home, barn, outbuilding, tree and stick on your properties long gone.

HISTORY OF AGGREGATE POLICIES IN ONTARIO

In about 1993 the aggregate industry wrote a report titled the "Aggregate Resources of Southern Ontario, A State of the Resource Study" in which they stated aggregate was a non-renewable resource and there was an impending shortage and it was important to the survival of the world as we know it (I am paraphrasing here) to dig as many holes, I mean pits and mines as possible IMMEDIATELY. As a result provincial policies were implemented that favour aggregate over everything and I mean everything, even water and food.

The province is looking at their aggregate policies again. At the "consultation table" is Conservation Ontario, Ontario Profesional Planners Institute (OPPI), Niagara Escarpment Commission, and several ministries (OMAFRA, MNR, MEI, MTO and MAH) and oh yeah a group that is registered with the Provincial government as a lobbyist organization known as the Ontario Sand & Gravel Assocation (OSGA).

Couple things to note here. The OSGA is funded by the very VERY wealthy aggregate industry and OSGA champions their cause which is basically making money.

The Niagara Escarpment Commission has a mandate is to protect the escarpment, yet curiously that hasn't stopped aggregate companies from operating in the escarpment. Oh yeah, did I mention there is an individual from the lobbyist group Ontario Sand & Gravel Association on the NEC-surprised?

Seriously, you can still be surpised by this type of nonesense?

Another item to note: the Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure (MEI) and Ministry of Transportation (MTO) are two ministries with some of the largest budgets after health and education and are both in the business of growth, which requires what? Everybody, say it together-aggregate.

Hm, wonder what the recommendations are going to be that come out of this "consultation"?

Please write our illustrious Premier, while he is still in office and express your concern about the representation at the aggregate consultation table to:

Dalton McGuinty, Premier

Legislative Building

Queen's Park

Toronto ON M7A 1A1

FAX: (416) 325-3745

OR

email address at this link:

https://www.premier.gov.on.ca/feedback/feedback.asp?Lang=EN

SUGGESTIONS FOR ELECTION CAMPAIGN SLOGANS

They may be toast, but should the 4 "seasoned" sitting Melancthon Councillors decide to run for Council in the 2010 municipal election, here are some suggested campaign slogans for them.

Have some fun and match the catchphrase to the Councillor. Here is where your regular attendance at Council meetings will pay off.

"Worry? Why, what is going on"

"It is the province's fault"

"What you do on your own private property is no ones business"

(editor's note-go ahead and put that ethanol plant on your property, it isn't anyone's business according to this councillor's muddled logic)

"With all due respect everyone is wrong except me, being the resident legal, planning, local government and legislative expert"

"Anything I can go out of my way to do for you, Mr. Lowndes?"

"Are there any questions? Actually, you can't ask questions at this time, I mean, yes I am calling for questions, no, seriously yes, questions please now, just not from you"

"We have to vote yes or else it will go to the OMB"

(TRICKED YOU, this is a slogan that is applicable to all 4 of them)

Have fun, add your own.

BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND AND IN THE SPIRIT OF CHRISTMAS

Original Post: Friday, October 9, 2009

How the Grinch (Almost) Stole our Farmland

The Melancthon people liked farming a lot
But Lowndes, an outsider, really did not

Lowndes hated farming!
All the farming seasons!

Now, please don't ask why.
We ALL know the reasons.

Staring down from his office with a John Lowndsey sneer
"Surely the end of Melancthon is finally near!"

He thought all the hicks in Melancthon would bite
And were too busy farming to put up a fight

"They are busy planting and digging!" he snarled with a sneer.
"While my open pit mine, is practically here!"

Then he growled, with his Lowndsey fingers nervously drumming,
"I MUST find a way to keep the mine coming!"

And he thought and he thought...In his small Lowndsey brain...
And that old John Lowndes, thought he was ever so wise
thinking the local hicks wouldn't see their coming demise

He thought the locals would think they were unable to win
And that they would move from their farms and take all their kin

But to his surprise they started to object
So Lowndes thought by golly I am not finished yet

Now the more Lowndes thought of his devilish plan
The more Lowndes did think: “I must own ALL the land!”

“Why I practically own all of Melancthon now!
To own all the rest would be my greatest cash cow!

Then he got an idea, a brilliant idea!
LOWNDES GOT A WONDERFUL, EVIL IDEA!

And he cackled with glee “What a great Lowndsey trick!
With my money and talent, I’ll bamboozle these hicks!

But to his stupendous surprise the hicks all fought back
With a grassroots organization that they called NDACT

“No!” Lowndes cried out, in a murderous rage
As tears of frustration ran down his smug face

His minion called Mikey had stood up for his boss
Working to keep residents from realizing their loss

But now Lowndes gave Mikey a clear ultimatum
"Decimate NDACT, or you’ll see what I’m made of!”

Lowndes sent wee Mikey out into the world
Armed with clipboard and binder And oh, did he toil!

He went to each meeting and sat with those hicks
Who would not fall for his lies or his devilish tricks

At the end of the day, little Mikey returned
With a book full of notes and facts that he’d learned

He informed master Lowndes of his final call:
“Have mercy, kind master, they’ve outsmarted us all!

We’re finished we’re done, we just can’t dig a mine!"
And all the locals and yokels thought that that was just fine.

Everyone finally knew that Lowndes was a fink

And 1 million Ontarians had water to drink

NDACT went back to their farms, children and wives

And continued to live their meaningful lives.

BREAKING NEWS

I had to read it to believe it and I still find it unbelievable....

Our Mayor and Deputy Mayor actually spoke out against an important issue. Sure, it wasn't about 2,400 acre 200 foot open pit mine in Melancthon, but something equally important-the loss of Shelburne hospital. Here is what they had to say:

"Fawcett noted over the years the services have been gradually stripped from the north campus and sent to Orangeville until “the writing was on the wall.”

Melancthon Deputy Mayor Bill Hill echoed those statements.
“It’s been a picking away of every single service that was available at that site,” Hill said, noting he was part of a group 12 years ago that fundraised to keep programs in Shelburne, which were subsequently shipped to Orangeville before “the cheque was dry.”"

For the full article, see this link:

http://www.orangevillebanner.com/news/article/82723

Clearly there was no danger this issue could be taken to the Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) or else they would have been as silent as mouse-just like they were the night there was discussion at the County Council meeting about the illegal cutting of thousands and thousands of trees by Highland Companies.

Well to be fair, it wasn't so much as Deputy Dog Hill didn't speak up that night, it was more that he was COMPLETELY absent from the meeting.

HERE KITTY KITTY KITTY

Here is another fall out from Lowndes seek and destroy rural blockbusting policy. When you tear down barn after barn after barn, where do you think the cats go that used to reside there?

About 6 weeks ago I started noticing at least 3 sets of kittens living on the sides of the road in various places in Melancthon. It was warm and they were frolicking and playing and looked well fed. I thought it was odd to see so many kittens at that time of the year in the wild and then I realized, they had no place to live, thanks to Lowndes/Highlands/Wilson/Downey Farms "farming" practices...you know the one, where they don't actually need any outbuilding, barns or houses to farm so they bulldoze and burn.

Where are the kittens now? They aren't on the side of the road anymore, I know that. After 6 weeks of living outside because their previous home was bulldozed and burnt, these kittens have either starved, been eaten by coyotes, run over by cars or froze to death.

You can thank Lowndes/Highland Companies, but equally the Council of the Township of Melancthon. They had the power to pass a bylaw under Section 33 of the Planning Act, which would have meant Highlands could only obtain a demolition permit for structures if they had obtained a building permit to replace whatever they were destroying.

Seriously, Highlands must think this is like taking candy from a baby, only babies usually know when someone is taking their candy.

This Council, on the other hand, appears to be so out of their element, they have no FREAKING idea what to do. If the Mayor can't run a question period at a Council meeting according to the procedure bylaw that they set the rules for, how in the hell can she lead her constituents in fighting an issue such as a 2,400 acre, 200 foot open pit mine?

Unless of course, she has a reason not to????

Baupost Group

To make it easy for people who might want to email this very successful company, who plans to mine 2,400 acres of prime agricultural land to a depth of 200 in Melancthon, here is their address:

client@baupost.com

And you might want to cc it to the biggest newspapers in Boston:

The Boston GlobeP.O. Box 2378Boston, MA 02107-2378E-mail letter@globe.com

Boston HeraldOne Herald SquareBoston, MA 02118
letterstoeditor@bostonherald.com

Suggested wording: how about environment, a right to clean tap water, local food sources?

A PICTURE SAYS A THOUSAND WORDS-SO ENOUGH SAID

JUST PEACHY

I am writing this as we are in our third day of blinding white outs and freezing temperatures as per usual in Melancthon in the winter.

I am also writing this with a straight face.

One of Lowndes highly paid guru's, at his July public meeting, stated that once they were finished raping the land, I mean farming the aggregate or whatever nice little spin they were putting on it, "someone" (and they made it clear it wouldn't be them) could farm....get this.....TENDER FRUIT TREES at the bottom of the big hole.

It would be funny if it weren't so serious.

Everything is just peachy in Lowndes world, kind of sucks for the rest of us.

Baupost Group-Read all About it

The Highland Companies is funded by a Boston hedgefund called the Baupost Group.

Who/What/Where??

THE BAUPOST GROUP
10 St. James Avenue - Suite 1700Boston, MA 02116617.210.8300

Click the links to find out more:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/12266447/What-is-The-Baupost-Group
http://www.linkedin.com/companies/the-baupost-group
http://vinvesting.com/tags/baupost-group

For more, just google Baupost Group.

Names and addresses are here-write them and tell them what you think about what they are doing to the environment. Many of them are associated with Harvard-wonder what their position on this would be?

RUBBISH!!

If the thought of a 2,400 acre, 200 foot deep open pit mine taking out 7,000 acres of prime agricultural land and threatening your water doesn't get you motivated to stand up and be heard, think about this.

Once you have this massive hole in the ground, you can fill it with two things-water or.....

Rubbish you say? Well think about it. At Highlands open house they stated when they are done mining, the only way to keep the water out of the hole would be for "someone" (and they were clear it wasn't going to be them) to operate the massive pumps forever to the end of time.

Who can afford that? Certainly not Melancthon Council. They can't even afford to have their planner attend Council meetings, but I digress.

By the time Lowndes is done digging his hole, Toronto will have filled the landfill just outside of London. The province, in their quest to always help Toronto the good since clearly it is the centre of the universe, is going to look around for somewhere close to Toronto to in order to dump garbage. Quite frankly I believe they have already looked at this proposal, just hasn't hit the light of day yet.

Rubbish you say? Well, what do they need to ship the garbage here?

And Lowndes is touting the rail line for the economic benefits it will bring....to him...and the other thing it will bring will be Toronto garbage.

So just think. Highlands bought the land for $8,000/acre, they will mine it for $18 million an acre and when they are done the province will pay an arm and a leg for the big dump, I mean the big hole.

If this mine proceeds, there will be very little argument to be made to stop a landfill-agricultural will be gone, the water quality will be questionable at best and there will be no people left.

Please stand up now and fight the mine-to stop the dump, to save our water, our environment and local food sources.

TORONTO STAR ARTICLE

Required reading.....

http://www.thestar.com/news/ontario/article/734969--rock-potato-schism?bn=1

Your Tax $$ at Work

Think about this:

You pay provincial taxes to elect politicians who hire policy specialitists who are paid by your tax $$ and who are lobbied by the aggregate industry to pass aggregate legislation that is favourable to the aggregate industry.

THEN when the open pit mine proponents want to put a 2,400 acre 200 foot open pit mine in your community that will take prime agricultural land out of commission and threaten your water, you are asked for financial donations to assist grass roots organizations to fight government policy, which you paid for in the first place.

Jeez. Like flushing money down the toilet...

How to fight this?

Writing letters to the government is great, it helps raise the profile. Writing letters to the opposition is great, it gives them a platform on which to run. All of the contact information is available in the internet.

What really changes government policy, however, is pressure through publicity. Think of Site 41, a "done deal" so to speak until the press had a field day with it.

If you have ANY contacts in the media, particularly the Toronto media, please utilize them in this battle. The government HATES bad press.

COUNCIL EXERCISES (CAUTION) IN THE YMCA

At the December 3 meeting of Council, the Town of Shelburne requested that Melancthon enter into a memorandum of understanding regarding the YMCA. They thoughtfully even sent a nice little template of the resolution for Council to sign.

To Council's credit they said they were hestitant and wanted concrete costs before proceeding.

On behalf of battle weary electors in Melancthon, I salute you.