{"id":16611,"date":"2017-02-22T17:24:40","date_gmt":"2017-02-22T22:24:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=16611"},"modified":"2017-02-22T17:24:40","modified_gmt":"2017-02-22T22:24:40","slug":"one-week-delay-would-provide-better-options-on-library-square-councillors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/one-week-delay-would-provide-better-options-on-library-square-councillors\/","title":{"rendered":"One week delay would provide better options on Library Square: Councillors"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n

It has taken 17 years \u2013 and counting \u2013 to determine the future of Library Square, but a delay of just a week or two would have provided lawmakers with a better picture of the future, argued some Councillors last week.
\nBefore Council gave the final thumbs-up to going forward with the next phase in developing a concept plan for Library Square, Councillor John Abel motioned a brief delay to allow Council to answer some lingering questions over the options.
\nA long-time vocal critic of the design firm which brought forward controversial concept plans for Aurora\u2019s Cultural Precinct last year, he said he wanted answers on what the consequences might be in moving forward with Library Square under a different contractor.
\n\u201cI think moving forward with that design concept of Library Square, I think we want to put our sights very big on the horizon and we know there is a great deal of interest out there,\u201d said Councillor Abel. \u201cMy thought is we could take a bit of time before we go ahead to ask FOTENN to bring conceptual plans forward\u2026when we really want to see the potential of what this site offers, from maybe engaging others in the planning and design industry, that we might have the very best options for long-term commitment in Library Square.\u201d
\nThese concerns were bolstered by Councillor Wendy Gaertner who questioned what legal obligations the Town had to stick with FOTENN. These questions went unanswered and a brief deferral, they argued, would allow time for answers.
\n\u201cIt is hard to say at this stage,\u201d said CAO Doug Nadorozny on the contract, \u201cdepending on what exactly Council wants to do if they don\u2019t want to follow these steps. The next step is work that aligns with the contracted work FOTENN was engaged to do, then there could be a conflict. We haven\u2019t had those discussions. I don\u2019t know what their position would be on that matter, but they could perhaps argue that they [had] a competitive process, including body of work, and we stop that work and retender that same work \u2013 at the very least we have to be careful not to get ourselves into that situation.\u201d
\nCouncillor Gaertner, however, said Council never approved Phase 2 concept designs, and she wanted someone with a specialization on downtown revitalization to carry out the work.
\n\u201cFrom the work I have seen today, I don\u2019t believe that is FOTENN,\u201d she said. \u201cI thought a deferral would give staff time to get us some extra information on whether or not we are obligated to go forward with this particular planner.\u201d
\nCouncillor Abel agreed: \u201cI would like the community and everyone engaged going forward because it should be quite a celebration and a great experience to put something like this together. We have some fabulous ideas and concepts going forward and this is where I thought we were going.\u201d
\nHowever, the idea of a delay left some Council members seeing red.
\nCouncillor Tom Mrakas, for instance, said the community engagement has been done, so far, the process was slowed to allow even more consultation, and to hear \u201cwe\u2019re going too fast but we\u2019re not going fast enough was \u2018double speak.\u2019\u201d
\n\u201cI think everyone needs to get it through their heads that we need to make a decision on this and move forward,\u201d he said.
\nCouncillor Sandra Humfryes was on a similar wavelength.
\n\u201cThis is the one time we need to be a team, probably more than ever,\u201d she said. \u201cWe need to have faith in the process that has taken us almost two and a half years in this term, four years before that, and years and years before that. Deferring it is not going to change a single thing. We have come so far and I am really worried that this is going to stop, and it is a serious problem if that happens.
\n\u201cFOTENN has a job to do. They have $20,000 left [and] they have to finish what they started. Around the table we have to come up with something we\u2019re all going to be proud of, but deferring it because we want other things to happen at this point is, I think, a very serious mistake. Our residents and the business people looking at us tonight are going to watch very carefully to see how serious we are in pushing this vision forward, that we all say we believe in, yet at every corner, it is \u2018How do we stop it from happening because we\u2019re not happy with this, this and this?\u2019\u201d <\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It has taken 17 years \u2013 and counting \u2013 to determine the future of Library Square, but a delay of just a week or two would have provided lawmakers with a better picture of the future, argued some Councillors last week. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_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},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16611","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-4jV","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-14 08:31:48","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\/16611","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=16611"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16611\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16611"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16611"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16611"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}