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m REPORT J k Cuts Election Time ByLaw None Understand A special meeting of the- town council was held on Monday night Sept 24 with all members in attend ance Three matters of major interest were discussed namely fire fighting arrangements as between Aurora and the townships of King and Whitchurch a byJaw limiting the existing period between nominations and elections and the planning boards zoning byJaw Among those present were El ton Armstrong reeve of King township and Ivan McLaughlin reeve of Whitchurch township Members of council from both townships also attended Councillor chairman of the Aurora town council fi nance committee introduced the subject of a new agreement for fire protection and pointed out that owing to increasing ex penses especially in respect of Auroras purchase of a new fire truck such new agreement was necessary His suggestion that the retainer arrangement for the use of the Aurora fire ser vices should be increased from evoked much discussion Additional fire service charges were also requested Happy Relations The Whitchurch representa tives argued that the proposed retainer increase was too much and wanted a comprehensive statement of expenses to justify the proposal At the same time it was agreed that as the reeve of King town ship pointed out the Aurora fire brigade had provided excellent service Reeve Armstrong said that their mutual relations with Aurora had always been of the happiest character and they would get along together Deputyreeve Murray stated that numerous factors entered into the matter a new tire truck heavy equipment costs and con stant depreciation Reeve Cook suggested that they might get useful advice from the fire marshals depart ment but this suggestion was dismissed on the grounds that it was wiser to try and manage their own affairs rather than run around seeking advice from other sources After considerable discussion it was resolved that a general statement of costs be provided at another early meeting be tween he representatives in an effort to reach an amicable new agreement Altering Electoral Time Councillor Davies introduced a bylaw to provide for a change in the present period of two weeks between nominations and electrons for council public school and hydro commissioner representation No discussion took place in re gard to this important bylaw and it was passed in brief time Nominations will take place on the last Friday in the month of November commencing at pm and elections will be held ten days later Thus this years nominations for the above offices will take place on Friday night November and elections for offices if there are more candidates than the number needed to fill the offices will take place on Mon day December 10 Zoning Bylaw A lengthy letter from the town solicitor Lome C Lee preceded the presentation of the planning boards zoning bylaw In his letter Mr Lee warned council that there were many provisions in the zoning bylaw of a far- reaching character and once council passed it and it became law they had no more power over it The town solicitor urged that the greatest caution be exercised by council in the consideration of this zoning bylaw and rec ommended that it be fully publi cised in order that the citizens of Aurora should know what the bylaw really meant The bylav having received a first reading council found it necessary to send for Mr Leo to help members interpret phrases and clauses in the course of dis cussing it council having gone into a committee of the whole Nobody Understands It At one point in the discussion Councillor Victor Jones suggest ed that the zoning bylaw be tabled until such time as an ex pert could come along and tell them just what it meant I dont understand it and I dont believe there is a single man in this room who does declared Councillor Jones Councillor Pringle asserted that council was the authority to deal it and said they should continue with the second read ing Page Col WHAT THEY ARE SAYING Who Will Win The Medal Cord Hoffman Jim Wilson Trophy In Willis Window Well the underground earthworms are up on our Main street and are gobbling up the pennies May we explain We refer to the parking meters This is what a writer in the Ottawa Citizen said of them a few weeks ago Nothing could look more unsightly or primitive than this sea of scrap iron sticking up through the earth like breathing pipes of some race of untie ground earthworms And at Long Branch it others to believe in them With pears that the storekeepers arc up in arms against meters and for their good reasons that shop pers are not so numerous as they used to be and trade has fallen away One of these Long traders said in a published in terview It is foolish to charge people to come in a shop It has been quite quiet since the met ers were put in and the absence of cars is very noticeable The testingtime for meters in Aurora has come If they should prove a success the honors must go to Mr Gordon Hoffman the original crusader for meters who went out and secured the signatures of more than mer chants and when the petition was challenged went forth again and increased the number to Should They Succeed Gordon Hoffman Is a very interesting man Meet him on the street and he thinks you are worth while ho will buttonhoi you and pour forth a series of arguments in favor of some town project There is something refreshing about his enthusiasm for the causes in which he ifl interested Whether you agree with him or not ho makes you think A man who makes you think must have done some thinking himself Mr Hoffman is a clever man and a successful one Hut ho never talks about his successes Hat her he talks about what could be done and not what has been done He looks forward to the future not back on the past except perhaps for reference and comparisons It is because of distinctions that he is an Enthusiasm springs what is ahead not from been achieved i J SINCLAIR Editor PAGE ELEVEN THURSDAY THE TWENTYSEVENTH DAY OF SEPTEMBER NINETEEN HUNDRED AND his bagful of approving signa tures he turned up in council one night in May last and pre sented them to the mayor and council As he left the council chamber he asked for Action please Mr Mayor Mayor Bell went with him all the way That was in late May This is now the end of September and the underground earthworms are up in plenty gobbling up the pennies If they prove a success the medal must go to Gordon Hoffman Should They Fall If the meters should fail Jim Hardware Wilson will get the medal It was Mr Wilson who led the opposing petitioners A quiet man of modest speech he is nevertheless tough and deter mined Like the tradesmen from Long Branch he argued that meters would drive business away- He took the same line that dcputyreeve Murray and coun cillors and Jones chose namely that Aurora was too small a town for meters and they would pro a nuisance Coun cil lor was also opposed to meters though he introduced the meter bylaw which as we wrote at the time greatly puzzled us However all these discussions are matters of the past though they ore on the record and may be brought out again at some future time to prove where ev eryone stood The trial is now on A few short months will prove whether meters are or are not a success in Aurora Twelve months trial period isnt it Wed better be sure on that or else some wise guy airing his personal magnificence will come along and correct us Should the meters succeed the 9SWftt WW EDITORIALS MAYOR BELL OVERRULES COUNCIL VOTE It was not our intention this week to discuss Mayor Bells tenure of office but certain unexpected circum stances during the past few days require immediate attention On Tuesday afternoon Sept 18 we called at the town hall in order to look through council business of Monday night Sept which has been our usual press custom since July We were informed by the assistant town that the town clerk had re ceived instructions from Mayor Bell that the press was no longer to be permitted to look through council business The town clerk was absent from his office on that afternoon and we very readily agreed not to publish the Mayors ban on the press last week and to await suggested clarification on the town clerks return We had pointed out to the assistant town clerk that our right to inspect council business in the interests of public information had been passed by a unanimous vote of council at a regular meeting in July On Friday afternoon Sept we put through a long distance telephone call from our Newmarket office and contacted Sir Moses personally After in forming him of our call at his office on Tuesday afternoon Sept 18 asked for confirmation of the instructions he had received from the Mayor in regard to our customary perusal of council business The town clerk confirmed the Mayors instructions left with him that the press was not in future to be allowed to look through the file of council business and that there was no change in those instructions Hav ing received such confirmation we thanked the town clerk and hung up the receiver UNANIMOUS COUNCIL APPROVAL It was at a regular council meeting held on August when a motion by Councillor Corbett second ed by Councillor was unanimously carried granting the facilities to the press which Mayor Bell on his personal initiative lias now withdrawn At the above meeting of council the following members were present Mayor Bell Reeve Cook and Councillors Corbett Glass Jones Murray and The unanimous decision by council to grant such facilities to the press arose from a letter we sent to Mayor Bell in which we pointed out that it was very difficult for a rciorter to get everything down accur ately at council sessions resolutions etc and we re quested permission to call at the clerks office after each meeting of council to verify notes taken We pointed out that such verified reporting would be in the interests of the work of council as much as it would he in the ratepayers interests The letter wc sent to the Mayor was road to council by Councillor and as we have pointed out it was approved unanimously by a vole of council Following the approval of council we have called at the clerks office after each meeting of council wc have attended since August and verified our own notes copied out resolutions etc so that the citi zens of Aurora could have as accurate and as complete a statement of public business as was humanly possible We are aware that the citizens of Aurora have depended on our reports of council for full information on the work of their elected representatives and we have never spared any effort or time in the perform- a nee of our public responsibility ROLE OF A DICTATOR The responsibility will fall directly on Mayor Bell to explain to his council and the citizens of Aurora why he has given instructions that the press is hence forth forbidden to see council business following each session Councils resolution of August has not been rescinded We could have published the news of his ban on the press immediately his instructions were communi cated to us on Tuesday afternoon Sept There was plenty of time left to us to put it in last Thursdays issue of the KUA and PRESS and have made headline of it had wc chosen to do so Instead of making immediate capital of such an extraordinary proceeding waited on any clarifica tion that might come along When on Friday after noon the Mayors instructions were confirmed by the town clerk our duty then was clear namely to inform the citizens of Aurora of the ban on press freedom issued by Mayor Bell The freedom of the press is a precious thing Only through the exercise of a free press can the people learn the truth There was a time when Mayor Bell appeared to like it free press for at his meeting as Mayor of Aurora in January 1950 ho spoke these words We have not had enough publicity it lias been like an iron curtain for the past four or five years It is the duty of the press to keep everyone in town informed on how your money is being spent and I think everyone should be interested That was Mayor Bell speaking in January when he also promised good government for Aurora We submit that unless and until the town council rescinds its resolution of August Mayor Bell had no legal right to issue any such ban as his instruc tions contain In so doing he sabotaged the collective authority of the town council and assumed the role of a dictator COUNCIL SIDELIGHTS Dont You Touch That Wall Or Well SitDown Strike To submit to threats is always a sad business It is the essence of democratic government not to submit to threats Any local body which surrenders to threats has forfeited its right to govern We regret to report that by a majority vote the Aurora town council on Monday night Sept 17 yielded to threats tV Four members of council stood out against the threats Their names are Deputyreeve Murray and Councillors Davies and Jones They deserve con gratulations The question on which coun cil surrendered its authority was the new hydro building on Mos- ley street Only one other sub ject within our knowledge has aroused so much public opposi tion as the new hydro building and that is the planning board At its meeting on August a motion was moved by Council lor Fielding that the hydro com mission be ordered to recon struct its new building so as to conform with bylaw building regulations That motion was carried with only Reeve Cook voting against it It was Councillor Fielding who completed a turnabout on Monday night September 17 and by her vote in favor of the hydro commission humbled councils authority and caused its surrender to threats Four Stood Firm Recently we wrote that in a contest Josephs coat of many colors would never stand a chance with the Aurora town council It is the most un predictable assembly have ever known You never know which way it will turn Some members appear to change their opinions oxernight At least four stood firm on the hydro building question We applaud them for their consist ency It can be said of them Messrs Murray Davies and Jones that they stood for the authority of council as the supreme executive authority in this town The hydro building offended against the building regulations the plans of which had been al tered apparently from originals passed by the permits committee The four members of council named insisted that the motion which they supported on August requesting the hy dro commissioners to alter the building be adhered to But the recorded vole went went against them Mayor Bell Reeve Cook Councillors Field ing Gundy and decided that council must yield under the threat of resignation by Commissioners Baldwin a Hose It in a truly lamentable state of affairs when a town council is browbeaten into sur render by two men who refuse to carry on unless they get their own way Let The in Resign Of course they just want their own way until the end of the year when they may be retiring anyway What council does af ter that wont worry them pre sumably But just please let the offending building alone un til they get out Then perhaps a new council will say Oh well whats it matter now The old council did it not us The commissioners admitted that a mistake had occurred in the building Very well The builder was ready and willing to correct the mistake by lopping off the eight and onehalf inches of west wall mistake which by the way wasnt the builders The builder built ac cording to plans placed before him But the commissioners would nt stand for that No no The building must be left as it is mistakes and all Of course everybody else in expected to obey regulations Everybody ex cept the town that is If Mr Bowser decided to take the eight and a half inches off would hydro interfere That was a question from Councillor to the mayor at council meeting They wont have it altered replied the mayor We suggest that a strong mayor bucked up by a strong council would have declared that they would have none of it And that unless the commis sioners carried out the decision of council to reconstruct the building they could resign im mediately if they so desired But we have neither a strong mayor nor a strong council some of which change their minds over night Auroras Sacred Wall So the two recalcitrant com missioners carried their point by the threat of a sitdown strike the building were to be at- they would refuse to at- there wouldnt be a quorum Al ternately they would resign and force an election It would have been an infin itely healthier civic state of affairs to have accepted the resignations of the two commis sioners and to have held an election to appoint their succes sors immediately than for coun cil to submit to dictation from two rebels against the councils directive ordering them to con form to building regulations Metaphorically what Mayor Bell Reeve Cook and Councillors Gundy and Fielding did was this They got down on their knees humbly imploring the rebellious com missioners to stay on the job on a promise that Auroras Hydro Wall would never be touched by any vandal hand The way this offending wall is being protected youd think it was as sacred as the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem or the Great Wall of China No Cooperation Here is the position as we see it Somebody wanted the hy dro building built as it stands now And there it is a model for all who would defy the building regulations For we cannot see how ihr town council can compel other people to obey regulations which it itself disregards We also think that the hydro commissioners would have set a fine example of cooperation had they after admitting that mistake had been made readily and willingly expressed a wish to have the building re constructed in accordance with building regulations They did not choose that co operative course Instead they took up an attitude of defiance to the chief local executive au thority We consider such an attitude most regrettable If everybody followed that ex ample mere would be no govern ment but only chaos Outside Intervention We have no desire carry on any argument with the editor of the Banner unless some mat ter of public interest arises which compels attention from us to the extent of presenting another point of view It was necessity not inclination that prompted a rebuttal we publish ed in last weeks issue of Aurora News Page There is another matter how ever to which we wish to draw attention as we think it is im portant It concerns the status of newspaper reporters at the press table of the town council one of whom is the editor of the Banner On three occasions at past ses sions of council he has forsaken the role of newspaper reporter to assume the part of giving a little purported guidance to council It is true that on the first occasion it was Councillor who invited the editor of the Banner to help council with suggestions For that small intervention Councillor must accept responsibility It concerned newspaper advertising on debentures On two subsequent occasions however the Banner editor and reporter has played a small part in council business The last instance was while the deben ture tenders were being dis cussed when the Banner re porter passed up two or three notes to members of council Solicitor Available Now there is no sit ting at the press table of the Attorn town council who is as wise as Solomon But even if there were it would not be his business to interject remarks or pass up notes while council is In session Council business Is strictly and exclusively for mem bers of council and for nobody else A reporters duty ait the press table is to sit still and take notes Ho is there to report not to comment either orally or by missive When he leaves the press table he is free to com ment within the law The de gree of his public usefulness will then become apparent In the past we have noticed that the town solicitor Is gen erally available when council needs assistance trust such procedure will continue THEATRE AURORA GRIFFITHS MANAGER TEL 8 hi Sat Sept GRAND DOUBLE FEATURE PROGRAMME A RAYMOND MASSEY S Z SAKA EDWIN MARIN PLUS Part THE SEA iff Showing Friday at and Saturday Matinee Only r J Monday Tuesday Oct ft