{"id":5073,"date":"2014-01-01T15:22:38","date_gmt":"2014-01-01T20:22:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=5073"},"modified":"2014-01-15T14:47:13","modified_gmt":"2014-01-15T19:47:13","slug":"inside-aurora-year-in-review-2013","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/inside-aurora-year-in-review-2013\/","title":{"rendered":"INSIDE AURORA: Year in Review 2013"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Jan 3 \u2013 The Auroran introduces a new horoscope column, which correctly predicts that The Auroran will start publishing horoscopes in 2013.<\/p>\n

Jan 8 \u2013 Council members can no longer claim alcohol on their expenses, but residents can continue to consume alcohol to numb the effect of following Council activities.<\/p>\n

Jan 15 \u2013 Residents of west Aurora protest when the winning flag design for the Town\u2019s sesquicentennial celebrations includes a cell tower.<\/p>\n

Jan 21 \u2013 The Jazz Fest\u2019s threat to take its event to Newmarket means that Aurora will have to make due with only 67 public music festivals, events and concerts in 2013, instead of 68.<\/p>\n

Jan 22 \u2013 In an effort to encourage voting, it\u2019s proposed that a question be placed on next year\u2019s municipal ballot asking residents whether they wish to reduce the size of Council from 8 to 6 councillors.<\/p>\n

Feb 3 \u2013 Although a bonfire is not planned as one of the events at the first Sesquicentennial party, the same result is achieved when all 150 candles on the Town\u2019s birthday cake are lit.<\/p>\n

Feb 10 \u2013 Ironically, their value increases after the Federal government declares the penny worthless and starts removing them from circulation, thereby creating scarcity for coin collectors. <\/p>\n

Feb 16 – The Chamber of Commerce does not win any awards by deferring the annual business achievement recognitions until 2014.<\/p>\n

Feb 27 \u2013 The Town promises that the latest in a long line of public consultations on the future of Library Square will be the very last one before a decision is made \u2013 or at least, the last one before a decision is made on having another series of consultations.<\/p>\n

Mar 1 \u2013 Town unity is put to the test as new Federal electoral boundaries split Aurora north and south of Wellington.<\/p>\n

Mar 18 \u2013 A report commissioned to report on the Town\u2019s low level of reserve funds can\u2019t be completed due to a lack of funding.<\/p>\n

Apr 2 \u2013 The continuation of winter conditions forces the groundhog who predicted an early spring two months earlier to go into hiding through the Witness Protection Program.<\/p>\n

Apr 14 – The Town agrees to chemically treat ash trees in town against the Emerald Ash Borer, when a report suggests that would be more effective than equipping residents with flyswatters.<\/p>\n

May 7 \u2013 The Town publishes a public apology to the three bloggers over the defamation lawsuit, but fails to apologize to all other Aurora residents over the latest tax increase.<\/p>\n

May 11 \u2013 Following a growing trend for the Town to rename municipal sites on John West Way, which started with the address of Town Hall going back and forth from Municipal Way, Civic Square Park is renamed Queen\u2019s Diamond Jubilee Park. <\/p>\n

May 17 – A report that says the Town\u2019s natural green areas bring in $7.4M in revenue a year is hailed by Council, who then go on to approve final plans for the 3,000 new homes going into the undeveloped 2C lands north of Wellington between Bayview and Leslie. <\/p>\n

May 28 \u2013 The growth in nausea cases at Southlake Hospital is connected to negative reactions to the increasing parking fees charged at that location.<\/p>\n

Jun 2 \u2013 A 200 year old Burr Oak is celebrated as not only the oldest tree in Aurora, but also as one of the few trees in town that wasn\u2019t illegally cut down that summer.<\/p>\n

Jun 17 \u2013 The Town remains at the little kids\u2019 table as York again denies Aurora\u2019s request for a second representative on regional council.<\/p>\n

Jun 24 \u2013 Ron Wallace appropriately makes headlines as Aurora\u2019s Citizen of the Year.<\/p>\n

Jun 28 \u2013 While Toronto\u2019s restaurants, cultural institutions and retail establishments celebrate the return of week-end GO train service to the city, Aurora\u2019s financially-strapped businesses are less enthusiastic.<\/p>\n

Next time \u2013 part 2.<\/em><\/p>\n

Feel free to e-mail Scott at: machellscorners@gmail.com
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Scott Johnston Jan 3 \u2013 The Auroran introduces a new horoscope column, which correctly predicts that The Auroran will start publishing horoscopes in 2013. Jan 8 \u2013 Council members can no longer claim alcohol on their expenses, but residents can continue to consume alcohol to numb the effect of following Council activities. Jan 15 […]<\/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_feature_clip_id":0,"_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":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5073","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\/p3D2k4-1jP","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-05 21:31:42","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\/5073","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=5073"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5073\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}