Opposed to school purchase

July 9, 2013 · 0 Comments

Spending this amount of money in such a small municipality for government offices makes no sense at all (Township purchases former Holy Name school site for $2.95M). For a council that has seemed quite pragmatic and financially responsible, this seems like huge error in judgement.
Think of how this money could have been used elsewhere: An indoor community pool somewhere in King Township. Road improvements, water improvements. Upgrade Township soccer fields and baseball diamonds. Aren’t any (or all) of these more preferable to the average resident than a “strategic purchase” for municipal offices?
There rightfully should have been a referendum on this and I’m pretty confident it would have lost. Why in the world does council get to unilaterally decide on such a large purchase for their own offices? Furthermore, what’s wrong with working out of a strip mall? Civil services can be performed as well from a strip mall as anywhere, so if some kind of vanity complex is a factor here then council and Township bureaucrats should get off their high horses.
And this $3 million could be just the tip of the iceberg – once rehabilitation/conversion starts just wait to see what that costs (it is a 45-year old building after all). As an example, Vaughan’s city hall budget ballooned from $89M to $122M. Different scale yes but same system.
King council, I think I speak for many residents when I say that we are not impressed with this purchase.

Simon Lloyd
Schomberg