Frank Magazine Issue 600.pdf - Besthostingplanever.com

WHO’S THE
BOSS AT THE
STRAIT SB?
BY DAN WALSH
THE STRAIT REGIONAL SCHOOL BOARD
IS DOING A BANG-UP JOB TEACHING PAR-
ENTS DICTATORSHIP 101.
The latest board slap-down comes courtesy
(what strange word to use, talking about the
Strait board) of the usual suspects: Jack
Beaton, Mary-Jess MacDonald and George
Kehoe, the board superintendent, chair and
vice-chair, respectively.
As reported elsewhere, Furious George interrupted
St. FX biz prof Randy Delorey’s Nov.
30 presentation into the board’s mishandling of
its school closing process.
But one parent who witnessed George’s policeman
act tells me that it was sparked when
Jack leaned into Mary Jess, who relayed a cue
to George, who then mumbled to her, “I know,”
and announced aloud, “Time’s up.”
“You had an unelected official telling elected
board members what to do,” my source gripes.
Two other sources, employing the same
phrase, describe Jack as “turning every colour
in the rainbow” during Randy’s presentation. I’m
not sure if the talk Randy delivered is identical to
the info found on savecommunity
schools.ca, but that site will give you an excellent
lesson in the dysfunctional Strait board.
As reported elsewhere, after George laid
down the law, boardie Frank MacNik rose and
requested a vote, to give Randy the chance to
finish his presentation. He only had a minute or
two left in it.
Only Kim Horton and Richelle MacLaughlin
sided with Frank.
Mary-Jess, Jason Bernard, Francine
Boudreau, Gerald “Gabby” MacDonald,
Brian Murray, Rosalee Parker and Clarence
Reddick all voted no. (I presume vice-chair
George, who was chairing the Committee Of
The Whole confab, did not vote. Boardie Anne
Peters was absent.)
The Strait shennanigans nearly beggar belief.
Earlier this year George acted like an immature
six year old, and stuck his tongue out at the
public (Frank 581).
Also at a 2010 public meeting, Jack came
across like a bully when he hinted that he will
sue parents who criticise him (Frank 585).
Did I mention, as soon the board voted to ignore
the rest of Randy’s presentation, all the
parents packed up and left these losers to themselves?
If the Strait board and staff weren’t in the business
of public service, it would all be quite laughable.
22 ATLANTIC CANADA FRANK DECEMBER 21, 2010
HOT FOR LINDA AT CITY HALL
BY DAN WALSH
LINDA MOSHER’S CRUSADE AGAINST
CITY HALL NEPOTISM HAS APPARENTLY
STRUCK A NERVE WITH SENIOR STAFFERS.
I’m hearing HRM bigwigs have met the veteran
councillor’s claims of nepotism, in-house
equipment theft and favouritism in doling out
overtime, with considerable disdain.
The unelected ruling classes have wasted
no time giving Linda grief over her Nov. 24 published
comments, according to a source, an
BY DAN WALSH
DEVELOPER WADIH FARES HAS THE GO-
AHEAD FROM PENNISULA COMMUNITY
COUNCIL TO TURN THE LONG-NEGLECTED
VICTORIAN LAWN OF 5757 INGLIS INTO A
POST-VICTORIAN PARKING LOT.
HRM planner MacKenzie Stonehocker
(Great handle! — ed.) tells me no one appealed
the Nov. 8 thumbs-up from councillors Sue
Uteck, Jerry Blumenthal, Dawn Sloane, and
Jenny Watts, during the mandatory two-week
waiting period.
Pending the formality of signed paperwork,
Fares is now able to proceed with his visionary
scheme to add nine units onto the four-unit
apartment building, to create Halifax’s newest
student ghetto just blocks away from the
Trillium, his rising luxury erection on South
Park Street and Brenton.
The Fares scheme calls for two huge additions
to pop up like giant carbuncles on either
side of the heritage house, an idea opposed by
most of the speakers at a November 2009
account I was unable to confirm with the
Purcell’s Cove-Armdale councillor before
deadline.
Her solution, to increase the resources available
to HRM’s Auditor General Larry Munroe,
seems to me emminently sensible.
While he doesn’t go so far as to compare the
one-time Tory candidate with working class
hero Eva Peron, one longtime HRM toiler tells
me a lot of HRM’s rank and file agree with Linda,
and he adds, “HRM is a poisoned workplace.
They need to clean house.”
... AND ON YOUR LEFT, A LOVELY
VICTORIAN, UM, PARKING LOT
GOING TO THE HOSPITAL SUCKS, BUT THANKS
TO AN INNOVATIVE NEW CHANGE AT THE VICTO-
RIA GENERAL, IT’LL BE EVEN WORSE.
Construction workers fenced off 85 prime
parking spots Dec. 3 to make space to expand
the Nova Scotia Cancer Centre in the Dixon
Building. One patient says it’s going to have
her endlessly circling for the next year.
“I’m already stressed beyond belief after driving
around for 20-25 minutes to find a parking
spot,” the woman, who drives in from out of
town once a week, and pays up to $12 for a
public hearing into the development.
Nowhere in Stonehocker’s six-page report
did it note that the home — councillor Sue’s favourite
in the city — is known as the Almon
House, and was built a mere eight years after
Confederation.
The Almon House is part of a nine-home,
registered heritage streetscape, with each property
built between 1875 and 1910 in the Queen
Anne Revival style.
But there’s a wider significance, also omitted
from the staff report. There are very few intact
Victorian streetscapes left in North America.
And soon there will be one less. Oh well, I guess
that’s all anicent history now.
Call me stupid (U R stupid. — ed.), but, er, I
don’t think they had asphalt parking lots for cars
in Victorian times. Maybe Wadih Fares, who is
older than I and much smarter, knows something
I don’t.
As noted in Frank 574, DTZ Barnicke guru
Tim Margolian and Fares are the listed directors
of 3216761 NS Ltd., the firm behind the
new student ghetto.
SPEAKING OF PARKING...
three-hour visit, says.
“There’s no parking close enough for the patients
who go there,” she says. Many, she adds,
are “limping or struggling.”
Staff are being offered alternate parking half
a kilometer away under Fenwick Tower for
$85 a month, says a Capital Health
spokesthingy, to free up spaces for residents.
A more frank gentleman in the parking department,
who didn’t want to be named, says he
doesn’t know why a parkade was never built,
and that he knows of no plans for one.