![\"AHS](\"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/web2013-03-26-09.jpg\")
<\/a>AHS curator Catherine Richards exhibits a historical piece of medical equipment alongside its modern counterpart ahead of a new exhibition in conjunction with Southlake Regional Health Centre.<\/p><\/div>\n
Councillors could delay making a firm decision on whether or not to acquire the historic Aurora Collection until the completion of a study to look at the larger picture.<\/p>\n
That is the decision going into this week\u2019s Council meeting following a committee resolution to expressed interest in acquiring the collection comprising of much of the Town\u2019s historic artefacts from the Aurora Historical Society (AHS) until the completion of a Cultural Master Plan.<\/p>\n
The Cultural Master Plan was approved earlier this year as part of Aurora\u2019s budget to undertake a study to look at the future direction of places like the Aurora Cultural Centre, Aurora Public Library, and AHS in the greater context of the Town. Going into last week\u2019s meeting, Councillors faced a recommendation to execute a transfer agreement and an exhibition and management agreement with the AHS, allocate $179,470 from Council\u2019s discretionary reserve account for the operating costs of the collection, and a further $50,000 from the same account for capital costs.<\/p>\n
Had they gone ahead with this recommendation last week, it would transfer operation of the collection from the AHS to the department of Park and Recreation. <\/p>\n
The Town recently secured exhibition space for the collection in the \u201cAurora Room\u201d at the Aurora Cultural Centre, but Councillors said last week they wanted a greater sense of how everything is going to fit together.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t feel comfortable going back to the residents and the taxpayers at this point in time and asking for more funds this year to support this, especially without a plan in place,\u201d said Councillor Paul Pirri, noting he would, however, like to see some funding put in place for a Sesquicentennial exhibit later this year.<\/p>\n
There was unanimous consent around the table that proceeding with the exhibition was important, but the majority agreed to put the brakes on the larger recommendation.<\/p>\n
\u201cI agree there is merit in trying to incorporate this into a Cultural Master Plan,\u201d said Councillor Michael Thompson. \u201cThere needs to be some discussion about all those pieces and looking at it from the big picture, that is what I see the Cultural Master Plan doing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Councillors ultimately voted to express their \u201ccontinued interest\u201d in moving forward with the acquisition but fell short of the actual follow through, despite their large support for the ultimate goal.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am very much in favour of the Town taking ownership of the collection,\u201d said Mayor Geoffrey Dawe. \u201cI think looking at the whole motion, it\u2026needs to be rolled into a complete discussion of what we want to do with everything. I think we\u2019re moving in the right direction, but if we move ahead with executing the agreement, we have to perhaps take $50,000 to get something going in the Aurora Room to actually show that we\u2019re serious moving forward.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am not prepared to step up with $180,000 [now to acquire it]. That comes out of Council discretionary reserves, which has no effect [on the taxpayer] but what happens year after and year after? I think that is part of the whole issue in terms of the whole cost.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mayor Dawe\u2019s motion to express continued interest but simply allocate funds at this time for the Aurora 150 exhibit was seen as a \u201cgood middle ground\u201d for Councillor Chris Ballard. He said it showed support to the AHS, but also to the taxpayer as well in looking at the big picture on how to use the collection and when to use it. <\/p>\n
\u201cI was concerned we were moving ahead with this study without having a Cultural Master Plan and I think what I am hearing around the table is some concern from others about that as well,\u201d he said. \u201cI know there would be great disappointment, perhaps, on the part of the Aurora Historical Society and staff have put a lot of time on this, but we have done a lot of really good work and we know where we stand in terms of what we\u2019re getting and where we want to take it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Others, however, weren\u2019t quite as convinced this was a step in the right direction, particularly Councillors John Abel and Sandra Humfryes, two Councillors who sit on the Town\u2019s Heritage Advisory Committee. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe have to bring our artefacts out and display them proudly,\u201d said Councillor Humfryes. \u201cI don\u2019t want to see this deferred.\u201d
\nFor Councillor Abel, the motion passed at Committee was simply a delay tactic and he said he wasn\u2019t in favour of \u201cmothballing\u201d the collection any longer.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to get that collection out of storage and move it forward,\u201d he said. \u201cWe have to be ready for that. We have a great year to celebrate it and I think we really want to move towards that. I don\u2019t want to step back. We\u2019re so close to doing something really good for the collection and for the Town.\u201d<\/p>\n
Following the meeting, Catherine Richards, Curator of the AHS, said she was not surprised Councillors chose to defer at Committee but would be interested in seeing if that still stands after this week\u2019s Council.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think Council is taking care to make sure it does link to a big picture, which is healthy\u2026but am I concerned with the issues brought forward by the Cultural Asset Management Group around conservation are being delayed?\u201d he said. \u201cWe still have those issues that won\u2019t be addressed and [is] that good for the collection? No. <\/p>\n
\u201cMy concern is we are in a situation where there are definite conservation concerns which should be addressed in the immediate future, but they won\u2019t be.\u201d<\/p>\n By Brock Weir Councillors could delay making a firm decision on whether or not to acquire the historic Aurora Collection until the completion of a study to look at the larger picture. That is the decision going into this week\u2019s Council meeting following a committee resolution to expressed interest in acquiring the collection comprising of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1074","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archive"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-hk","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-14 13:56:46","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1074","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1074"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1074\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1074"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1074"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1074"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a><\/a><\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"