{"id":8139,"date":"2014-09-17T15:09:01","date_gmt":"2014-09-17T19:09:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=8139"},"modified":"2014-10-01T13:52:46","modified_gmt":"2014-10-01T17:52:46","slug":"deal-to-buy-old-aurora-armoury-to-close-this-month","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/deal-to-buy-old-aurora-armoury-to-close-this-month\/","title":{"rendered":"Deal to buy old Aurora Armoury to close this month"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

After nearly 140 years as property of the Crown, the old Aurora Armoury will soon become property of the Town of Aurora.<\/p>\n

A bylaw to purchase the historic building at the northeast corner of Town Park for $515,000 was approved in a 7 \u2013 2 vote at Council last week.
\nFor those in favour of the purchase, it was both time to secure an important part of Aurora\u2019s heritage as well as \u201ccomplete\u201d Town Park for future generations. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a significant part of Aurora\u2019s history,\u201d said Councillor John Abel. \u201cIt belongs to us [and] it is our job, in my mind, to acquire it and bring it back to something that we can all use in the community. It is a great facility to put into our Town Park. I would hate to be on the receiving end of residents [if they hear] we turned it down. I do not want any part of that. It is going to be a great asset to our Town.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mayor Geoffrey Dawe was also vocal in his support for the deal, noting it will complement what Aurora\u2019s Town Park has to offer.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe it is an essential part of the Town to finish its Town Park,\u201d he said. \u201cIt is a piece that has been out there for a number of years. I think there are all sorts of things we can use that for. It just makes sense to go ahead with it, and it is something that will actually bring value to our taxpayers.\u201d<\/p>\n

When the deal goes through, Aurora will acquire the building from the Federal Department of Public Works and Government Services for $514,800. A further $120,000 will also be required to fix up and maintain the building, according to reports from municipal staff, although the building itself is sound.<\/p>\n

The buy will be funded by Aurora\u2019s Cash-in-Lieu of Parkland Reserve account, which currently stands at approximately $13 million, according to Town Treasurer Dan Elliott. <\/p>\n

Voting against the acquisition were Councillors Evelyn Buck and John Gallo. <\/p>\n

The building was handed over to the Crown in Queen Victoria\u2019s name for the purposes of military training, she argued. Now that the Queen\u2019s York Rangers regiment has found a new home in the former Aurora Hydro building, since redubbed the Lieutenant-Governor John Graves Simcoe Armoury, the Government should give the land back to the Town.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe property should come back to the Town at no cost whatsoever,\u201d she said. \u201cThey took it without paying for it, they have had it for 140 years, and I don\u2019t think we should pay for it at all.\u201d <\/p>\n

Further to this, she said with bylaws zoning this land for industrial uses, there would be limited appeal from potential buyers if the Town did not take its opportunity to buy the building before it went on the open market.<\/p>\n

\u201cI cannot support expending Town money on this matter,\u201d she concluded, noting concerns over ongoing operation costs of the building. \u201cThere could be no other reason for [the Federal Government\u2019s] decision to get rid of it and if they can\u2019t afford it, I don\u2019t see how we can.\u201d
\nAlthough Councillor Abel said he was in favour of \u201cexploring\u201d the possibility of purchasing the property down the road, he said he objected to the \u201cspeed\u201d of the deal.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t have a business study for it, we don\u2019t have a return on investment for it, we don\u2019t know what we\u2019re going to do with it,\u201d he said. \u201cWhile I can sympathise it is a heritage building and we want it in the possession of the Town, the speed in which we are doing this I do not have a lot of comfort. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe concept of spending tax dollars on properties with no identified purpose is on a trajectory that is unsustainable and we have to start thinking differently in municipalities in the way we are spending tax dollars.\u201d<\/p>\n

Town Staff, on the other hand, rejected the idea they were doing things in haste, stating that this is a limited opportunity and they have to follow the timelines of the Federal government. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe timing is not our own,\u201d said Aurora CAO Neil Garbe. \u201cThe timing is dictated by Public Works and Government Canada in their disposal of surplus.\u201d<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After nearly 140 years as property of the Crown, the old Aurora Armoury will soon become property of the Town of Aurora.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":8045,"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":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8139","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archive"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/2014-09-11-17.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-27h","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-16 10:17:27","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\/8139","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=8139"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8139\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8045"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}