MORE OF THE BIZARRE IN WOOLWICH TOWNSHIP

OTHERWISE KNOWN AS PUTTING THE CART BEFORE THE HORSE

I'm the first to admit that sometimes appearances can be deceiving. In that case however it is incumbent upon the party involved to clearly explain, clarify and enlighten those of us who follow the maxim "If it looks like a duck, waddles like a duck and quacks like a duck then it probably is a duck.". In the specific case involved it very much looks like corruption and both smells and sounds like corruption. Are our elected municipal representatives so far gone that they believe that they can convince the majority of Woolwich citizens that a horribly bad idea really has merit?

So in the ever ongoing challenge to decipher behaviour of politicians we ask the age old question "Is it gross stupidity and incompetence or are they getting paid off and by whom? In one sense we can at least admire the brass and chutzpah involved if politicians are a hundred miles on the wrong side of an issue in order to personally benefit from it. That at least makes sense to us versus them being a hundred miles on the wrong side of an issue because they've been lobbied into it and they've bought into the really stupid rationale for so doing.

To date the argument in favour of both putting the long proposed Elmira by-pass on the east side of Elmira along with adding so called "employment" lands to Elmira's boundaries is well beyond weak. It is essentially to date a case of trust us we know what we are doing whether or not we've explained why the east side is better than the west side. Woolwich's (Council or Staff) argument in this matter is just about as intelligent and persuasive as was their argument to confiscate part of the community's park in Breslau and sell it to the Catholic School Board.

Costs to build a highway will be higher on the east side due to low lying floodplain and wetlands along the Canagagigue Creek. Costs will be higher due to having to build a major bridge across the same Canagagigue Creek. Finally the kicker is the contaminated Stroh (highly probable) lands and the creek throughout its' length. The contaminated creek sediments, creekbanks and floodplain soils are proven. The Stroh lands contamination are within a whisker of being proven. Soil and groundwater tests have been conducted within a foot or two of their property and the results for various Uniroyal/Chemtura/Lanxess toxic compounds are well in exceedance of applicable criteria.

The appearance is that once more Woolwich Council are the white (black) knights swooping in to save Chemtura (Lanxess) from paying the high price for their environmental degradation of our air, soil and water. The onus is on Council to give an honest, clear, concise explanation for what the hell they are trying to do. So far they aren't even close.