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Bring the Abbotsford policeforce now
Form an Abbotsford Langley District ASAP. Get out own transit system, and arrange for mutual waste and water handling. Costly? Maybe. Cheaper in thre long run though, and relief from the reaming we'll keep getting from the GVRD.
Pianoman I like the way you think...outside of the box. Abbotsford district is looking better all the time. Maybe we should merge with Abbotsford. Easy way to get out of GVRD and easy way to turf gaggle of goofs on Council!
Sad to say getting out of the GVRD would be virtually impossible. The statutory nature of Regional Districts (in the Local Government Act) makes it possible to leave but regional districts are insidious beasts in that they lock us all together through joint borrowing etc.. Most problematically we are indelibly linked to the GVRD for much of our water and our sewers and they could make it financially ruinous for us to get our basic services if we tried to leave.
That doesn't mean that we shouldn't start reminding the City who pays the lion's share for services.
My sister lives in View Royal (just outside of Victoria). From what I understand View Royal tried to do the same thing (glom on to Victoria et al. but not pay its share) and the District told them to go suck eggs. View Royal residents couldn't get a Regional Library Card and were required to pay extra to use regional municipal facilities etc.. It wasn't too long till they found the money to pay up for their share of services.
Cheers
By the bye, my first suggestion two tiered pricing for services like the rec centers. This could be done using postal codes. When you tried to go to the pool there would be one price for the District and a higher price for City residents.
Nothing is impossible to get out of. It justs costs money in the short run. May save in the long run. Penalizing the residents of Langley City isn't fair. We don't ask for more money if Abbotsford residents use our facilities. We can't even really criticize the City Council for being afraid to trust the Township's management of our joint dollars. How would you feel if you and your neighbour agreed to share building of a fence and your neighbour promptly almost doubled the cost and design and then said pay up more money. Would you feel like doing more joint projects. The Township Council and especially the Mayor should wear this one prominently. Unfortunately one newspaper in Langley seems to us to see no evil and hear no evil when it comes to this Mayor and his slate. That by the way is why Blogs like this start up. We are biased and don't hide it but should formal newspapers in the community be biased? Do you think that there is poor and biased Press reporting in Langley?
The only way to get change is to cause a voters to get angry. Unfortunately, the City has taken the Township for granted and to get their politicians to think twice you have to get their voters angry.
Sure our Township council has done a poor job of their finances but that doesn't excuse the City for taking us for Policing costs etc.. Sure when they had no money it was okay to subsidize their services, now that they can pay, they should do so.
As for the local papers, they haven't done the job you or I would hope they'd do. But I'm not sure if the bias isn't from a lack of resources. The Township spoon feeds them enough content that a handful of them can fill enough column inches to do what they relly want to do....SELL ADDS.
Someone told me very correctly so that at one time the newspapers business was to sell the news. They now have changed their focus to clearly be selling ads. Has News become a secondary neccesary evil? We sometimes think this is especially so in the local papers especially one of them. The scary thing is how much does the focus on ad selling affect a paper's news reporting. Hopefully not at all, but we worry some times. For instance did you know that we heard an unconfirmed comment that one local paper gets more than $150,ooo a year in advertising from the Township. Would this affect their reporting? Both Councillor Richter and Bateman have publicy stated that they don't agree with the amount of money spent for advertising in general and want to save some money here. Has this affecting reporting on them? We don't know yet but have a look yourself and tell us what you think. By the way The Aldergrove star if you have not yet had the chance is still very much a community focused and news focused to the credit of the homegrown editor Kurt Langmann. We also think that the newspaper chains should only hire reporters and especially editors who live in the community to report on and are active and particpate in the same community. This is very important in the local papers. They also have to remain non partisan and especially unbiased.
On the issue of the City. We can't blame them really. They are ducking out of the Blair pool just when the Township was planning to build a $9 million expansion to it. After the $3-4-5 million Grandstand we should not blame them for wanting to get the hell as far away as possible from the Blair pool! They clearly see this Township Council as a financial liability to them. Wouldn't you? They seem to care about their taxpayers yet our local rags help get the same gaggle of goofs elected to Township!
everyone should start the Richter for mayor campaign now. Well you finally said it, and that's what this rank screaming has been about, all the time. You wouldn't happen to be her bedmate , now would you??...Mr. Mysterious!!
Got a better suggestion? Hey at this point we would support anyone else for Mayor(a few smarter Councillors would help to), maybe even you(thats a stretch)! Ok let us change our suggestion then to make you happy. Donkey for Mayor! Anybody but. The issue is if you pay taxes be afraid, be very afraid! When are people like you gonna admit that this Mayor's Council is out of control financially? Rank screaming does not seem to get anywhere either. Look at the Council we re-elected.
LFP,
The problem with selling the news in local papers is that the newspapers are delivered free of charge. Since the reader doesn't pay for the service they don't need to sell the news. The only thing paying for the paper are the ads so they take priority. Editorial content and news stories are just filler in this case to convince the reader to turn the pages to see more ads...otherwise we'd all recycle them immediately.
As for the Township buying ad space, I don't see a cost-effective alternative for the Township for posting notices etc.. other than the local papers. Since they are delivered to all of us it guarantees that notices can be seen to go out to all residents.
How about flyers in the form of Newsletters sent to every home mailbox and dropped off to businesses. People may even look more closely at them than buried in the bowels of newspapers' ads. Delivered somewhat like the parks and rec booklet. I see them everywhere. Get this the Township could probably sell ads in this newsletter flyer to help pay for them! Think of who would advertise, wow unlimited even at election time revenues would be great. Not a bad idea though. You heard it here first!
The thing about flyers and other unaddressed mail is that for people like me those sealed envelopes full of offers go straight to the recycling bin without opening. The paper, on the other hand, gets to the kitchen table every time and is usually opened in the morning when I need light reading with breakfast. By coincidence the paper at home is open to the Township page right now as I was scanning it with my Shredded wheat this very day.
My better half (who is as quick as I in throwing away unaddressed mail), always goes through the flyers from the paper and we often use the clip-outs from Safeway, Ralph's etc... to decide where we are going shopping.
To summarize, the reason the ads are put there is that they have been shown to work. The alternatives (like flyers) aren't new and since they aren't being used it is likely that they aren't as effective and/or cost-effective as newspaper ads.
If it is good at nothing else the free market does separate the wheat from the chaff pretty quickly.
Cheers,
I still haven't seen anyone come up with the cost of breaking with the GVRD. Regrds the legality of doing so, it is our democratic right to do so if we wish, and a good stink about anythink as unfair as the GVRD and Translink would justify the act in the eyes of the public no matter where they live. The way that Victoria intends to TOLL us out of the GVRD is reason enough.
Nothing's impossible.
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