Bruce on the Bruce

So our elected representatives are yet again entertaining thoughts about the airport!

Two years ago Mayor Gwen Gilbert secured an offer to purchase the airport from some developers willing to pay $2,000,000 for the 800 acres and Georgian Bluffs killed the deal!

Today Mayor John Close is promoting the concept of giving the airport to Georgian Bluffs in exchange for the lagoon we already own!

So effectively we are trading the Airport for Shit!!

The airport is in no doubt worth $2,00,000 at the very least. Georgian Bluffs got their interest in the Airport for nothing. The appraisal of the airport done in 2002, done by Hopper Real Estate was $1,800,000 then, some 10 years ago! So now it is worth a lake full of shit????

They must be using that new math!

IF some developer was willing to pay $2 Million two years ago and Mayor Barfoot killed the deal, did he have something bigger in mind?? Doesn’t that mean that at the very least we should get $1,000,000??

Yes the Airport has been costing money but wait a minute, say what you will, it has been operated by a committee that is chaired by Dwight Burly, Deputy Mayor of Georgian Bluffs!!!

Let me think for a minute …. If I am driving the bus and I have a partner that I want to get rid of, wouldn’t I make the deal a big looser so that my partner would want to dump it ASAP to stop the bleeding??

Hey if I could get ownership of the 800 acres for a lake full of shit that I already own isn’t theat the same as getting the 800 acres for nothing??

Give your head a shake, we the taxpayers of the Town of South Bruce Peninsula are holding the jar of vaseline while we tie our shoes to the benefit of Georgian Bluffs!

Don’t matter how you slice it, we are giving up our interest in a valuable asset for a lagoon full of shit!!

Stupid is as stupid does as Forrest Gump would say!!!

BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
Bruce

TSBP Hides Proposal To Give Away Our Interest In The Wiarton Keppel Airport

It was hard to tell from item 5.2 in the May 15 Council Agenda, titled “Public Meeting Notice-Restructuring, Georgian Bluffs and South Bruce Peninsula”, but the proposal is not really about “restructuring” at all. The item was about a proposal to give away our share of the Wiarton Keppel airport.

The one page report include in the agenda package indicated only one clue:

“The Town of South Bruce Peninsula has also consented to the transfer of their 50% ownership in the Wiarton-Keppel International Airport to the Township of Georgian Bluffs”.

This proposal is unacceptable, and is not in the interests of the people of TSBP.

I have two concerns.

One is that the giveaway of half of the airport to Georgian Bluffs is a bad deal. The second is that the bad deal is being hidden as “restructuring”.

A BAD DEAL

The airport straddles the border between Georgian Bluffs and TSBP. The airport was owned by the Canadian Government until 1996, at which time it was given to TSBP and Georgian Bluffs on a 50/50 ownership basis. It has been managed ever since by a joint board. The airport has always run deficits, last year at about $150,000. The deficit is covered by taxpayers, 50% by TSBP and 50% by Georgian Bluffs.

I understand that the airport was appraised at $2,000,000 in about 2008. See

http://bruceonthebruce.wordpress.com/page/4/

In 2010 there was a buyer interested, but apparently Georgian Bluffs refused to consider selling.

A special task force of TSBP council members and Georgian Bluffs council members and staff of both towns have been discussing, mostly in closed session, what to do with the airport.

What they appear to have consented to is a very good deal for the people of Georgian Bluffs, but a very bad deal for the people of TSBP.

Here’s the proposed deal. Georgian Bluffs gets our share of the airport, and gets their town boundary redrawn to include the whole airport. In return the people of TSBP get no cash, no assets, no property, nothing tangible, nothing of value.

What we get is to redraw the TSBP boundaries to include a little strip of land along highway 6 that is currently within the town of Georgian bluffs. We don’t get ownership of that land. What we get is worthless.

Georgian Bluffs gets to own our share of the airport, and we get to own nothing in return.

It’s a bad deal. It’s the same as giving away our share of the airport.

BAD DEAL / HIDDEN DEAL

TSBP council is trying to hide the bad deal. Why else would they discuss a million dollar policy decision completely and unnecessarily in closed session and then hide it with a title “restructuring proposal” and then falsely portray it as a few minor boundary line adjustments?

There will be two public sessions to gather public comments.

They are:

Wednesday May 23rd, 2012 at 7:30 p.m. AT Wiarton & District Community
Centre and Arena, 526 Taylor St. Wiarton

Wednesday May 30th, 2012 at 7:30 p.m. AT Shallow Lake & District
Community Centre 550 Princes St. Shallow Lake

Come out and tell TSBP council not to give away our million dollar share in the airport.

And /or send a written submission to:

Angie Cathrae
Clerk/CEMC
Town of South Bruce Peninsula
315 George Street, PO Box 310
Wiarton, Ontario.
N0H 2T0
Phone 519-534-1400
Email: sbpen@bmts.com

Craig