Wasaga Smoke and Mirror Announcements

In March of 2024, Wasaga Beach Council voted unanimously to allow the CAO to look into either building a new town hall or another option, which was to have a developer build one on Main Street and lease it to us. (Wouldn’t THAT be a sweet deal?)

So, here we are four months later and where are we with this? I ask the question with all sincerity for a very important reason. I recall that both our Chief Building/ Planning official Danny Rogers and our CAO, Andrew McNeil described a situation where the second floor at Town Hall was made to sound unsafe and I recall the planning department and I believe the CAO’s offices were going to move to the old library.

In an article from Ian Adams, it was stated that there were 2×6’s as joists and an inefficient configuration of furnaces. I think it was the CAO who said something like, the tourists found it confusing when Google brought them there.

The repairs they said were required were in the area of $1.7 Million. There was a $500,000 budget line for improving accessabilities under mandatory legislation.

Is all of this sounding familiar? Maybe someone can go back and check, but I thing the repairs were put on hold to save the $500,000 despite that costing us a grant we had been approved for. Please look up those details… I admit I just recall a few points right now.

But, with everything that is going on to raise funds by selling off parcels of valuable Town Owned lands, it prompted me to wonder if this EXTREMELY expensive idea has maybe been shelved?

It sounds like the priority is going to be to complete 20 Million Dollars of Beach One improvements that sound like maybe a developer should be paying? Our budget is coming and there are a LOT of projects we have been told will be free. So let’s start to hear details.

So many questions and a few observations come to mind…

If the investigation into a new town hall is now abandoned, is the Town Hall going to get these 1.7 Million Dollars required to make it safe? I don’t think even this Council would embellish safety concerns JUST to support a projects advancement. If it’s needed, will it be in the 2025 budget?
I have not heard any official updates, has the Planning Department and the CAO’s office actually moved over to the library?
What efforts and resources have been dedicated to this project so far? Is THIS one of the reasons our Cheque registers are so slow in becoming public. Are key staff being pulled away from important responsibilities to service the CAO’s pet project?

I know my discussions are daily reading for a few key high ranking employees, and hundreds of Wasaga Beach Residents. Have any of you walked in to our town hall and said, “This would be so much more efficient if it were two blocks east?

As our budget is now in the process of being established (schedule of timeline posted a couple of meetings ago with the first report) how many other “really essential projects” at the time they were presented… are now already collecting dust BECAUSE Council needs cash fast?

Initially, it was the budget that made me think of this, but then I started to ask… how many other time wasting, money wasting projects has our Council gladly voted just to go ahead with because our CAO’s say it’s best?

For instance, we were all told the new Catholic High School would build us a Community Theatre at no cost. Has the agreement for this been worked out and is it ready for public release?

How many legal opinions have been solicited and paid for to advance these projects? How many staff hours have been dedicated to “BIG ANNOUNCEMENTS”, just to make the big announcement?

That last bit is probably the most important question. How many of these big announcements have simply been smoke and mirrors?

Thoughts?