As council and city hall have refused to come clean on the motives behind the summary dismissal of our fire chief and has threatened the remaining volunteer firemen with reprisals if they went public about their concerns, it has become the cause of much speculation and rumor within the community.
Whatever the reasons for dismissal are it is still important to ask the question about what this action really signifies. It may be more than a simple personal disagreement between two competing interests as I suggested in an earlier speculation. It may be the first sign of a huge change to fire protection in Coldstream in the near future. Namely, city clerk and council have decided that Coldstream has outgrown the services of a volunteer fire department and that for legal and security reasons it needs to upgrade to a full time professional fire department. How would that sit with you?
Think about it, when Coldstream was just a small largely rural population center, septic tanks and volunteer fire department were entirely adequate. Then when the 'old boys', with substantial property interests, noticed a demand for more single residential properties, by an influx of newcomers and they decided to take financial advantage of the situation by subdividing their land or selling to developers. It became imperative to produce an official community development plan that would require sewer service to higher density population areas [subdivisions]. It does seem rather odd that they decided on the layout of sewer lines even before they had the geotechnical information in hand. That is, which areas had poor underground drainage and would require sewer rather than septic. Also, it's curious that residents petitioned on proposed sewer line routes were overwhelmingly against putting in the lines. No matter, the lines were put in, 'we know what's best for you'. Since Coldstream Meadows is located beside Coldstream Creek it needed a sewer line, so council extended the line at our cost to help Borden with his proposed development and on top of that payed him an optional $250,000 late comer fee for his portion of the sewer line. If that wasn't a sweetheart deal then what is? Moreover they allowed Sugoi Development to change the zoning on his property to high density so that it would require a sewer line along Aberdeen road, which coincidentally just happens to pass beside the Mayor's large land holding. It would certainly facilitate the eventual subdivision of his lands. All of the above lends itself to suspicions about the sewer agenda.
Now let's come back to the new fire halls and the firing of our chief. All the recent population growth and particularly the building of Coldstream Meadows, required the upgrading of the existing fire halls. Perhaps the volunteer fire staff were lead to believe that the halls were also built to accommodate their needs. All is well expect that the ratepayers have had to take on long term debt to service Coldstream Meadows and other proposed developments. This begs the question: did the residents of the community really want sewer lines, a new city hall, new fire halls and a mega sports complex? I think not! The agenda was driven by some influential propertied interests in Coldstream largely at the expense of the public purse [rate payers].
So now imagine what would happen if the fire Chief found out that he was redundant and expendable because the community now requires the service of a full time professional fire department. Could that explain his dismissal? Moreover, how do you feel about the fact that councils have driven development to such a level that we must now incur the additional debt burden of a professional fire department? Wouldn't it be cute if one of the councilors, who used to be a fireman, were hired as the new fire chief or member of our new fire department?
Of course these are all mere idle speculations which have no basis in fact but it does serve as food for thought. Think about it! Please be more discriminating in whom you vote for in the next municipal elections :'To Serve Your Interests'.
Your resident political observer and commentator:
Pete Peto
P.S. These opinions are in no way shared by the Coldstream Ratepayers Association and should be attributed solely to myself, a concerned ratepayer.
Whatever the reasons for dismissal are it is still important to ask the question about what this action really signifies. It may be more than a simple personal disagreement between two competing interests as I suggested in an earlier speculation. It may be the first sign of a huge change to fire protection in Coldstream in the near future. Namely, city clerk and council have decided that Coldstream has outgrown the services of a volunteer fire department and that for legal and security reasons it needs to upgrade to a full time professional fire department. How would that sit with you?
Think about it, when Coldstream was just a small largely rural population center, septic tanks and volunteer fire department were entirely adequate. Then when the 'old boys', with substantial property interests, noticed a demand for more single residential properties, by an influx of newcomers and they decided to take financial advantage of the situation by subdividing their land or selling to developers. It became imperative to produce an official community development plan that would require sewer service to higher density population areas [subdivisions]. It does seem rather odd that they decided on the layout of sewer lines even before they had the geotechnical information in hand. That is, which areas had poor underground drainage and would require sewer rather than septic. Also, it's curious that residents petitioned on proposed sewer line routes were overwhelmingly against putting in the lines. No matter, the lines were put in, 'we know what's best for you'. Since Coldstream Meadows is located beside Coldstream Creek it needed a sewer line, so council extended the line at our cost to help Borden with his proposed development and on top of that payed him an optional $250,000 late comer fee for his portion of the sewer line. If that wasn't a sweetheart deal then what is? Moreover they allowed Sugoi Development to change the zoning on his property to high density so that it would require a sewer line along Aberdeen road, which coincidentally just happens to pass beside the Mayor's large land holding. It would certainly facilitate the eventual subdivision of his lands. All of the above lends itself to suspicions about the sewer agenda.
Now let's come back to the new fire halls and the firing of our chief. All the recent population growth and particularly the building of Coldstream Meadows, required the upgrading of the existing fire halls. Perhaps the volunteer fire staff were lead to believe that the halls were also built to accommodate their needs. All is well expect that the ratepayers have had to take on long term debt to service Coldstream Meadows and other proposed developments. This begs the question: did the residents of the community really want sewer lines, a new city hall, new fire halls and a mega sports complex? I think not! The agenda was driven by some influential propertied interests in Coldstream largely at the expense of the public purse [rate payers].
So now imagine what would happen if the fire Chief found out that he was redundant and expendable because the community now requires the service of a full time professional fire department. Could that explain his dismissal? Moreover, how do you feel about the fact that councils have driven development to such a level that we must now incur the additional debt burden of a professional fire department? Wouldn't it be cute if one of the councilors, who used to be a fireman, were hired as the new fire chief or member of our new fire department?
Of course these are all mere idle speculations which have no basis in fact but it does serve as food for thought. Think about it! Please be more discriminating in whom you vote for in the next municipal elections :'To Serve Your Interests'.
Your resident political observer and commentator:
Pete Peto
P.S. These opinions are in no way shared by the Coldstream Ratepayers Association and should be attributed solely to myself, a concerned ratepayer.
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