Over The Top ?
Monday, April 23, 2012 @ 3:39 PM
Prince George- 4,550 that’s the number of signed forms that Eric Allen presented to City Solicitor Walter Babicz at 3.00pm. today to stop the borrowing of 3.6 million dollars by the city.
The petition needs 5351 signatures of voters in the city in order to force the city to hold a referendum on the proposal to borrow 3.6 million dollars to construct a Dike along River road.
A further 2.5 million is being spent in buying up properties along the edge of the river. That amount was not included in the borrowing proposal.
When Allan first arrived he brought with him 3,248 signatures, but as the appointed time of 3pm. approached many residents came into city hall to present their signed opposition forms.
The figure quickly grew from 3,248 to 4,550.
Allan and the balance of the group say that many of the forms have already been e-mailed or faxed or taken personally to City Hall.
Joe Myatovic arrived 331 signatures in hand. He called on the community to keep getting their forms in. We need another 600 or so to make sure that we are over the top.
Peter Ewart said this will send a message to not only Prince George but the rest of the province that the new figure of 10% can be attainted and the people can have their say.
Allan says he believes that with the sheets already turned in at city hall, we are over the top, but he asked that those people who have signed forms to please get them in.
Walter Babicz says the number of signed forms will be released wit h the City council agenda.
Comments
Kudos to the hustle of this group. Hopefully they also created a database of like-minded individuals that can be mobilized every time there is a significant borrowing initiative.
Big money borrowing should go to the people. Even those people in favour of a dike should be in favour of a proper referendum requiring a positive response from the electorate after the business case is laid out by the proponents of the borrowing plan.
C’mon citizens of PG.If you havn’t yet, get that form in.
Yes, good for the group. Kudos to the media as well who kept the profile of this AAP high in the mind of the citizens of PG.
One of the main reasons the last couple of AAPs failed because they were all but ignored by the media.
I signed the petition when I went to pay my sewer and garbage taxes. I sure hope they count mine. I remember that day well and will never forget. That is the same day I found out the city bought a $50 thousand dollar electric car. Maybe they should have asked taxpayers on that one too. Bunch of ninnies.
Lets hope it doesn’t count in at 5350, aye johnny? 1 name short would mean the people of PG are not against them borrowing, right? Ooops, what’s this? One fell on the floor and was hidden under a desk? Too bad you are 1 short, people. Get out the cheque book, shari.
Good for you Prince George!
Keep it going!
This is awesome! Both adults in my household signed the petition and dropped them off at city hall a while back. I do believe “we” may stop this thing! :D
Yeah, the not so clever little people of the city have won a victory over the big bad City. Thanks very much for adding $100,000 to cost of something that the City needs and will install anyway in the end.
I don’t just blame the ignorant and uniformed, but the City themselves for this fiasco. They have to start communicating to the less educated people in this city in a way that they understand. I’ll bet 95% of the people who filled out those forms have read up on the dike and why we need it. Fools!
*haven’t read up on the dike that is…
“They have to start communicating to the less educated people in this city in a way that they understand.”
That’s exactly what the referendum process is.
The only reason we had a flood in the first place was due to the ice on the Nechako running aground on the gravel bars. Remove the gravel bars and the problem ceases to exist.
Those that don’t understand childs play in puddles are ignorant and uninformed.
While I am against the dyke, those who think dredging will help are the really ignorant ones…
You are correct Dragonmaster.
Obviously the city never heard of “dredging”!
A lot of places experience flooding…do they all build dikes?
Only occasionly…they “dredge’ the problem areas first!
It isn’t always permanent solution by any means…but it works…for quite a while!
It is also a hell of a lot cheaper!
You will now notice of course,that everyone will tell you you are wrong.
Please sumit a form and protect the financial well being of Prince George. Our council and bureaucratic won’t do it. We have to stop this financial incompetence on and for all. There are too many lies at election time. How soon they forget, after they are elected.
Still trying to get over being a not so clever little Prince Georgian. Boo-Hoo.
City might have to accommodate a live in little dutch boy with a big finger next to the new dike.
But: “Lets hope it doesn’t count in at 5350, aye johnny? 1 name short would mean the people of PG are not against them borrowing, right? Ooops, what’s this? One fell on the floor and was hidden under a desk? Too bad you are 1 short, people.”
Please feel free to take a moment to get over yourself.
Amazing the people in favour of the dike are the really smart people and the people who don’t want 5.5 million of city tax dollars spent on a dike are really stupid.
I sure hope the really stupid people get enough signatures to force a referendum and defeat the spending of 5.5 million dollars of city taxpayer money on a dike.
Maybe the AAP should be reversed and the really smart people should need to get 5351 signatures in favour of the dike in order for it to proceed. Wonder how that would work out?
Hasn’t there been enough waste with the purchase of the PG hotel, AAP for city building, AAP for a heating system that gets heat from a local sawmill and has a big new fancy natural gas fired boiler facility, property purchase downtown, and top it off with a Nissan leaf and charging station to the tune of $150,000.00. Years ago the city bought the old Europe hotel for close to 1/2 million bucks and now sits with a 33′ lot in downtown PG. Hell of investment.
But then, those who think dredging isn’t the answer are complete and utter imbeciles!
Thank you Dragon – you’ve proven my point. Now please show me the physics that supports how a deeper channel will overcome the pressure of the Fraser and magically make the Nechako drain into it. Oh wait, we already have river experts that show how it won’t help. Never mind.
I signed the counter petion as well and wanted to thank Eric, Joe and others for their efforts getting the vote out!
While I thank all the armchair engineers for their valuable input, and for at least partially potentially causing an increase in unnecessary spending this year to the tune of about $75k, I think I’ll defer to the engineers on this one and vote accordingly if necessary.
It’s interesting to me that some people fail to see a correlation between a lack of development downtown in the areas now designated as a floodplain and potential business owners exercising prudence and a little common sense.
I thought Shari Green ran on a platform of reducing city spending in order to lower tax rates. Am I missing something?
One Ice Jam Flood in how many years and now we need a dike? At the time of the ice jam the fraser wasn’t the issue. The Ice jam was caused by weather. Too warm too cold cycle and extra water being released by alcan.
The business of dike building has nothing to do with the City.
“Thanks very much for adding $100,000 to cost of something that the City needs and will install anyway in the end.”
Who needs it? CN? Give me a break.
If they build the darn thing and there is another flood I hope every person on the north side of the river sues the city for damages.
The federal and provincial governments should be paying for all of this.
Why donât we just do what the Engineers did in the first place, change the flood plain .just that simple. Make it 1 meter less, then we donât need to spend the money. But wait what will those engineers do for a living then.
Of course they can use warm water to thaw the ice in the river. Now that took genius.
Its time for some people to wake up and smell the roses. Especially those like Sine Nomine, who likes to insult people but who obviously has little or no intelligence when is comes to the facts.
Fact 1. The City located its Community Energy System at Lakeland Mills which is located in the flood zone. Why would they do that, if they were worried about flooding.??
Fact 2. CN Rail built a $20 Million warehouse and container yard in the flood zone a few years ago. Why would they do that if they were worried about flooding??
Fact 3. The City spent $7 Million in 2010 upgrading River Road to the 200 year flood plain, and stated that the upgrade would minimize flooding.
Fact 4. There has not been a flood of any degree since 2007/08 so the upgrade to River Road has not been tested to see if it does in fact minimize flooding.
Fact 5. There is nothing in the Consultants report, nor nothing from the Engineers to specifically state that this dike would in fact stop any flooding. At best it states that it would slow down seepage.
Fact 6. If the City had not applied for this grant, for the dike, we would not be having this conversation.
Fact 7. The responsibility for the flooding of rivers belongs to the Federal and Provincial Governments. By taking this money, we will now be responsible for the maintenace and upkeep of a dike, that in all probability will not serve any useful purpose.
Fact 8. People who pay taxes have the right to a say on how their money is spent. People like Sine Nomine doesnt pay anymore than the ignorant and uninformed that are referred to.
Fact 9. Having been involved to getting petitions signed I can tell you first hand that the people signing for the most part were not as dumb as Sine Nomine would like to beleive. In fact some were highly educated, and very rich. So you can shove that idea where the sun doesnt shine.
Fact 10. The one thing that is a bar against all learning, and will keep you in everlasting ignorance, is contempt prior to investigation. I suggest that Sine Nomine falls into this category.
Bskakun-
I don’t have time to look this evening, but if memory serves you voted against the dyke but were in favor of holding the AAP.
Correct?
Skakun voted against receiving the money from the Feds/Province ($5.4 Million) stating that there had been enough work done on River Road.
He then later voted in favour of going to the Alternative Approval Process.
Then as he states above he signed the AAP, that if successful will force the City to a referendum.
Skakun voted against receiving the money from the Feds/Province ($5.4 Million) stating that there had been enough work done on River Road.
He then later voted in favour of going to the Alternative Approval Process.
Then as he states above he signed the AAP, that if successful will force the City to a referendum.
Any point you’re trying to make is usless drivel.
*useless
I’m not in favour of the dyke because the whole area is gravel. If the water level goes up, it will just go right under the dyke.
I do have trouble with those that think they can solve the problem by dredging the river though. The river system is shallow from the mouth of the Nechako all the way to Red Rock. If we were to dredge, how far are we going to dredge it? If we dredged all the way to Red Rock, I think it would work, but unless we can drop the level of the rivers in Prince George by dredging all the way, I don’t see that dredging will work, the ice will just jam a little farther down.
I think the releases play a part in it and we can blame Alcan all we want for the releases, but I don’t know if could do a better job. That watershed covers a large area of the province and it’s pretty well impossible to predict how much water is going to be behind the dam at any given time.
I think a reasonable solution is to let more water out on the Kemano side so that we don’t have to do releases in the winter. I think that Kemano 2 will help with this and this is another reason why we don’t need a dyke.
“….the not so clever little people of the city….”
Yes, these are the “little” people who live here, work here, retire here…and pay the taxes to the city!
If too many of the “little not so clever people” move away to greener pastures because they can’t afford to live here any more or because they are sick and tired of being treated like “not so clever little people” the big oh so very clever people at city hall will be out of a job!
I am just disguted that I pay more in property tax then my friends in Vancouver who live in million dollar homes. For that privilege I still have no water (I am on a well), no sewage (I am on septic), and deteriorating roadways. Meanwhile, Shari Green (who promised she was going to reign in my taxes) is spending money like a drunken sailor on $350,000 reviews which the City Manager could do for free, on patronage appointments and on ridiculous projects like this dike. Hey Shari, if you got a few extra million to throw around on infrastructure, how about running some water and sewer lines to the outlying neighbourhoods?
Comments for this article are closed.