{"id":19803,"date":"2018-02-08T11:59:30","date_gmt":"2018-02-08T16:59:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=19803"},"modified":"2018-02-08T11:59:30","modified_gmt":"2018-02-08T16:59:30","slug":"inside-aurora-stability-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/inside-aurora-stability-crisis\/","title":{"rendered":"INSIDE AURORA: Stability Crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Scott Johnston<\/strong><\/p>\n

With winter almost at an end – fingers crossed – I was taking what I hoped was a final seasonal wander through the arboretum when I spied a small figure perched on a bench. To my surprise I saw it was Aurora Annie, the Town\u2019s weather prognosticating groundhog.
\nNot unusually, because it was often the case when I ran into her, she looked depressed.
\n\u201cWhat\u2019s the matter,\u201d I asked, \u201cand what are you doing out and about? We usually don\u2019t see you after the beginning of February.\u201d
\n\u201cI\u2019m stressed,\u201d she responded, wringing her tiny paws together.
\n\u201cBut why? Was your prediction off this year?\u201d
\n\u201cWell, it\u2019s too early to know for sure. After all, it\u2019s only been a week. But I hope I\u2019ll be right,\u201d she added with a small smile.
\n\u201cSo, what\u2019s the matter?\u201d
\n\u201cI\u2019m being impacted by the Interim Control Bylaw regarding stable neighbourhoods that the Town\u2019s initiating.\u201d
\n\u201cStable neighbourhoods? But you don\u2019t live downtown, do you?\u201d
\n\u201cNo, I live here,\u201d and with a wave of her arm, she indicated the snow covered valley surrounding us. \u201cBut the rules will apply everywhere.\u201d
\nThere were no houses that I could see that would be impacted.
\nI must have looked perplexed, because she continued; \u201cWith global warming, it\u2019s getting tough to predict the end of winter these days, and people expect more accurate assessments every year. So to help me prepare, I\u2019m thinking of putting in a small meteorological station before next February.\u201d
\n\u201cYou mean with a wind speed tower, precipitation gage, and that sort of thing?\u201d
\n\u201cExactly. Not a very big one, but it should give me an edge in my predictions. Unfortunately, the other local groundhogs here feel it will spoil the look of the neighbourhood. After all, we all live in holes in the ground. They say building anything above ground will make my place stand out, and will go above and beyond the subterranean residential norm.\u201d
\n\u201cThe Town may not give me a permit to build it,\u201d she concluded with a sniff.
\nI looked around. Currently covered in a blanket of white, the usually green open fields and trees here in the heart of Aurora were a natural wonderland no matter what the season. Construction of any sort in this area would definitely stand out.
\nWe sat for a moment, me in silence, and Annie looking down and sighing dramatically.
\n\u201cI bet you don\u2019t need a weather station,\u201d I suggested, looking over at her. \u201cAfter all, you\u2019ve got a great track record without it.\u201d
\nAt this she started sobbing uncontrollably, her shoulders heaving and tears flowing. It was kind of startling.
\n\u201cYou … don\u2019t know … the pressure \u2026 I\u2019m under … to forecast … the end of winter!\u201d she managed to say between breaths.
\n\u201cMaybe if it\u2019s not too large, it might be okay,\u201d I added hastily. \u201cOr maybe you could disguise it with some grass or shrubs or rocks or something, so it doesn\u2019t stand out.\u201d
\n\u201cPerhaps,\u201d she admitted, bringing herself more under control.
\n\u201cSure,\u201d I enthused. \u201cA bit of strategically placed camouflage, and even if they know it\u2019s there, your neighbours won\u2019t be able to see it. They\u2019d have nothing to complain about.\u201d
\n\u201cThanks for the idea,\u201d she said taking out a tiny handkerchief and blowing her nose quite loudly for such a small mammal. \u201cI\u2019ll look into it.\u201d
\nI got up off of the bench, leaving her looking across the field, no doubt mentally envisioning where to place her carefully concealed weather equipment.
\nI just hoped the Town approved her proposal. Annie gets enough stress every year. It can\u2019t be good for her blood pressure.
\nFeel free to e-mail Scott at: machellscorners@gmail.com.<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Scott Johnston With winter almost at an end – fingers crossed – I was taking what I hoped was a final seasonal wander through the arboretum when I spied a small figure perched on a bench. To my surprise I saw it was Aurora Annie, the Town\u2019s weather prognosticating groundhog. Not unusually, because it […]<\/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":[29,28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19803","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-columns","category-opinion"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-59p","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-11 15:17:31","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\/19803","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=19803"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19803\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19803"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19803"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19803"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}