O.K.  I think we have enough rain and I am actually ready to leave this soggy place and head to drier climates.  California here I come!  I am serious, I have had enough.  So what if the countryside is lush and green?  I don't really care anymore.  Where is the sunshine??  If I hear one more comment about how good the rain is for this part of the country I am going to throw a wreck.  AAAAARRRRRGGGGHHHHH!!!!!

I do believe in global warming and climate change and all that stuff.  So bring on the warming and change for crying out loud.  The interesting thing about crappy weather is that is all anybody talks about, including me.  So I guess it is time to shut up about that and "blog" about something else.

I bought petunias, portulaca, geraniums and a beautiful begonia.  They are all outside and doing quite well considering.  Well, all except the poor portulaca which has rotted.  I will have to get out there between showers and plow it under and get something else started there.  I knew that this would probably be the year for sweet peas but I decided against it because it sounded like too much work to soak the seeds before I put them in the parched earth.  Ha!  I will never be a meteorologist.

To top it all off we are having issues with our water consumption.  We are about 99 percent certain that our water metre is faulty since there is no way that we would use 29 cubic metres of water in a month's time.  We did the toilet tank test, and have determined that it isn't the culprit.  We even turned the water off at the tank overnight and when we check the metre in the morning it has actually moved ahead.  If there is a leak somewhere it certainly isn't obvious so what is that all about?  Unless we have someone tapping into our water supply we cannot figure out why the metre moves when the water is not turned on anywhere.  Today Bernie will march down to the town office and suggest a new metre.

Enough talk about water.


That was quite a turn out of citizens for the June 1 Council meeting.  While it didn't surprise me that almost 200 people would show up it seemed that some of the other councillors were totally shocked at the mass of humanity that tried to press into the small meeting room.  I mean, really, what did they expect?  The meeting was advertised on a billboard in town and it specifically addressed the issue of taxation.  Anything to do with money and you can expect people to show up.

I was glad in a way, but on the other hand there is not a whole lot you can do about taxes since it is pretty much inevitable that if you are a home owner or a business owner in town that you will have to pay taxes.  The assessors had done their job and the value of most people's properties went up - a lot.  In addition to this there was a raise in the mill rate.  No wonder people were upset since the increases were pretty much a shock and surprise.  I am also glad that our assessor was there to answer questions.

As far as people being upset - well......I think they should be.  It is no revelation that I am an unhappy camper and I guess you could call me a Rogue Councillor, a Rebel, whatever.  I have had my own issues with my own council not supporting me when they should have.  It is well documented that I sent a very forceful letter to the Minister of Seniors and Community Supports requesting that we get some action on the age old issue of senior's housing in Coronation.  Due to an over reaction by our "Assisted Living Board" the mayor told me that I shouldn't have written the letter.  Oh brother.  The old boys club in action again.  (See Tuesday November 10th for some back ground.)

What did I do?  I wrote a strong and forceful letter to the editor which appeared in the local paper around the third week of January.   I was frustrated that my own council and the mayor would not support the taxpayers and would be quite content to sit back and do nothing.  Well, for my efforts I got royally crapped on.  The "Assisted Living Board" wrote another whining letter to the council complaining about my letter to the editor.  Then my own council took out ad space in both the Coronation and Castor papers and apologized for what I wrote and basically said that none of them supported me or my opinions.  Well they can all go to hell as far as I'm concerned.  And yes, if any of you are reading this that is how I really feel.  Do you blame me??

Oh it gets even more interesting.  We were gone down to warmer climates from December 18 to February 8.  I missed the one and only meeting we had in January on the 5th and a meeting in February which was held on the first Tuesday of the month.  When I checked my mail I retrieved my December council cheque but not January's.  When I called the town office and asked the CAO if the cheques for January had been mailed he said that yes they had been mailed.  When I told him that I did not receive mine he seemed puzzled, didn't really want to talk to me because he was in a hurry to go somewhere and told me that he would get the financial officer to call me.  Well, she never called.

I went to the office the next day and asked the financial officer about my January cheque.  She said that they had been mailed and I told her mine was not there.  She made a big show of looking around the office for it which puzzled me since if it had been mailed then why was she looking in the office???  Oh well.  She advised me to check the post office again and if it wasn't there then she would have to put a stop payment on that cheque and issue another one to me.   By this point in time it was February 10th.  I mean, really.......if the cheques were mailed on Monday the 8th like they said they were then where was mine?  Lost in the mail?  How could that be?  Realistically it did not make sense, but then what does when the whole truth is not being told?

I played along and called her back on  the 11th to say that I checked at the Post Office and my cheque was not there.  On Friday she called me and said that another cheque was there and if I wanted it I should come in and get it and then run it up to the mayor's place of business to get it signed.  I declined and said that I would expect that he could sign it the next time he came into the office.  When I went to the office to get it I discovered that two hundred dollars had been deducted.  When I asked why I was told that it had to do with missing a meeting.  When I asked who had told her to deduct that money I was told that it was the CAO.

Well the fact of the matter is we have a bylaw that says that if council agrees that an unacceptable reason has been given for missing a meeting then money will be deducted.  It doesn't take a genius to figure out that council did not even discuss it since a motion would have to be made.  When I asked questions regarding this matter I was told by the mayor that no motion needed to be made and that he would ask the CAO for details since he did not attend that meeting.

There was an All Council meeting in Castor on February 25th which I could not attend.  Apparently a decision was made amongst our councillors to not have the regular meeting on March 2nd because our CAO could not be there.  I knew nothing about this decision and when I called the office the morning of March 2nd to complain that the council pkg. had not been put up on the web site the financial officer said that she didn't know how to do it and that furthermore, the meeting had been postponed to March 9th.  When I asked her who made the decision and whose responsibility it was to let the councillors know I did not get a good answer.  I guess they were trying to tell me something.

At the March 9th meeting I questioned the CAO about why I was missing two hundred dollars from my cheque.  The answers I got ranged from:  "it was done in error", to "you missed two full months of meetings", to "you wrote letters and articles in the paper".  I kid you not, it was a gong show.  I insisted that it was not fair nor equitable since another councillor had missed meetings last summer without penalty.  The CAO became rather defensive and ugly and called me "freaking ignorant" (in a rather loud and nasty voice, complete with menacing body language).  Then the mayor told me that he "had enough" that he "runs the meetings and if I don't like it there's the door".....yes that is what he said.......Then, and only then was I told (and after I insisted that I wanted my money) that I would get my money.  When I asked when that would be the CAO sneered at me and asked me when I wanted it.  The Mayor also threatened not to sign the cheque.  Wow.........nice people.

During all of this not once did any of the other councillors utter a word either in my defence or otherwise.  I can honestly say that if someone else had been treated in this way that I would have been the first one to speak up.  One of them tried to get me to give my opinion on something about missing committee meetings and did I think that we also get paid to go to more than just council meetings.  I declined since that was not the point and I failed to see why anyone would want my opinion anyway.

What happened here?  Well it is my theory that when I penned the letter to the editor it was not appreciated and the "powers that be" thought that they could "punish" me by holding back my council cheque.  I guess they didn't think that I, a mere woman, would ask where it was.  When I pushed the issue that is when the cheque was actually made with the two hundred dollar deduction.  Little did they know that I do not stand for that kind of behaviour.  I guess they think I am a fool.  I may be outspoken but I am not a fool.

So if anyone who is reading this right now is bowled over by this inappropriate and unacceptable behaviour, then maybe you can see why I haven't got much use for the current council. 

I hope that all those angry people who are in a sweat about their taxes and about other things that have happened with town council these past three years are ready to put their money where their mouths are.  This is election year.  Get those nomination papers filled out and signed, hand them in, run for council.  We need an election and we need a change.