August 25, 2012
25/08/2012 06:13
Welcome To SAP And Good Morning!
Pull up a chair, grab a cuppa
hot coffee and spend 10 minutes to start your day with St. Albert's only daily news site.
Not from St. Albert? Not to worry, there's plenty for you too.
A great way to put a smile on your face before you begin your day.
Have an opinion, gripe or grin to share? Use our Live Chat feature below to share it with other readers. Try our frequent recipes. Give our puzzles a whirl or a game of hangman. Check out our outstanding linked photos. Got a story or photo to share? Want to wish someone happy birthday or anniversary? We love your stuff from any location. Go ahead, send it in. We dare you!
Best of all, it's all free thanks to our advertisers. Enjoy and please, tell your friends. And be sure to check back often each day as the site can be updated as events occur. Follow @mybirdietweets
SOSA And The 150th Committee
What's Going On This Time Council?
Why Does SOSA Have Our Tax Dollars?
Many folks are asking questions about the Spirit Of St. Albert Society (SOSA) and rightly so. With a simple picnic, costing $73,500 taking place tomorrow, it is high time council came clean with taxpayers on what is going on.
Here are some of the things people would like answers to:
* Why did council give this hastily formed group $10,000 when they were already the recipients of all the leftover cash and assets of the 150th Birthday Committee? That cash totalled some $60,000 and was given to SOSA by the 150th Birthday Committee as a legacy grant as well as the leftover chattels of the 150th committee according to what SAP has learned from documents recently obtained.
* Did the 150th Birthday Committee have the authority to give that $60,000 and assets away without consultation with mayor and council?
* Why was that $60,000 not returned to city coffers by the 150th Birthday Committee instead of giving it away? If there was a surplus, should that not be returned to the city due to it being the largest single contributor to the 150th committee with tax dollars?
* Was council part of the decision making team that created SOSA and if not, why not?
* Why has the 150th Birthday Committee not submitted a report on its spending of the half million dollars of tax dollars it was given in a formal report to council? It is now eight full months since the committee's mandate ended and surely that is enough time for any fool to produce such a report. Why are the mayor and council not demanding an accounting of that half million bucks?
* When councillor Parker tried to question why a 150th Birthday Committee report submitted to council was only a single page during a council meeting in May, why did mayor Crouse appear to be so desperate to shut him up and cease any further discussion on that single piece of paper? Look up the council meeting video on the city website for the last meeting in May and see for yourself.
* Why is tomorrow's picnic costing $73,500 and why is it being paid for with taxpayer dollars?
* Why are not such events if even necessary, not firmly controlled by city administration under the direction of city council?
* Why was the web site of the 150th Birthday Committee abruptly removed from the city's web site and replaced with a SOSA substitute? Is the city hiding something again, much like they did with the Starbucks at $ervu$ Place fiasco?
* Why did the 150th committee invite the public to submit photos of anniversary celebrations, yet not one picture was submitted that appeared on their web site.
* Why did the 150th committee website promise regular newsletters? Only six were ever issued during the anniversary year, the last being July of 2011. Nearly half a year's activities received zero promotion. Or were there any activities during the final five months of the year?
* Why did the 150th committee website announce a contest for kids, inviting kids to submit drawings to appear on the website, when not one drawing ever appeared?
* How much money was spent on the 150th Birthday souvenir items and how much merchandise went unsold? Ask anyone you meet on the street if they ever saw any 150th related material. The vast majority will answer no.
* Under the heading "Grants" on the former 150th committee website, only a single grant was shown as received by the committee, that being $75,000 from the province. What was that money spent on?
* Why was there no media coverage of any event after August 17, 2011 noted on the former website. Was there any coverage or were there no events held?
* Why did the 150th committee 'Call For Artists' to produce bronze outdoor sculptures on the website, when not a single submission was noted.
* Why did the former website show only two private donors? Is that really all the donors there were?
* Why it is widely rumoured that at least two well-known members of the 150th Birthday Committee quit the committee in disgust at the way things were being run?
Something stinks to high heaven with the 150th Birthday Committee. Will the stench carry over into the SOSA group? Are the two groups made up of the same people?
Council needs to come clean with the taxpayers of St. Albert and how their money was squandered by the 150th Birthday Committee. Either that or produce a proper public accounting to taxpayers to prove it wasn't. Is SOSA yet another private group of the privileged few quickly forming their own group, to tap tax money to spend on zero benefit events for most members of the community?
The ball is now in city council's court. Have they the cajones to face the public with the real story, or will it be fudged like the Starbucks at $ervu$ Place pack of untruths by this council? Over to you mayor and council.
See more via these links:
+ The SOSA 2012 - 2014 Objectives and 2012 Financial Operating Plan:
Page 1
Page 2
Page 3
+ The SOSA Certificate of Incorporation
+ The SOSA 2012 Operating Budget
Page 1
Page 2
Page 3
The Photography Of Paul Dicaire
Don,
This autumn picture was taken in early October near Barry’s Bay, Ontario.
Paul Dicaire
St. Albert
__________________________________________________________________
BBC News Feed:
Welcome To St. Albert's Place Live Chat
READER RESPONSE To Live Chat:
"The law is the law"....really!!! A cop once said to me, " there's no grey area in the law"...... Really!!! ... Then what is case law? New grey area discovered every day. So you can't drive and do anything distracting at the same time!!! Eg. When a cop races after a car and talks on the radio at the same time. I can do two things at the same time ... But I'm not from Edmonton.
Linda Locicero
St. Albert
Links To Other Stories In The News:
Senator's wife charged for airplane disturbance - CBC
2 dead, 9 wounded in Empire State building shootings - CNN
Quebec woman drowns during wedding photo shoot - CTV
Jury rules for Apple in case against Samsung - Edmonton Journal
Woman dies after LRT fall - Edmonton Sun
__________________________________________________________________
The Things That People Send Us
Perhaps a bit of truth here . . .
Doggy
High
Chair
Senior Olympic Synchronized Swimming
This group get a great laugh from the crowd.
*Submitted by Geordie of the city.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________
Playing Tonight At LB's Pub
hot coffee and spend 10 minutes to start your day with St. Albert's only daily news site.
Not from St. Albert? Not to worry, there's plenty for you too.
A great way to put a smile on your face before you begin your day.
Have an opinion, gripe or grin to share? Use our Live Chat feature below to share it with other readers. Try our frequent recipes. Give our puzzles a whirl or a game of hangman. Check out our outstanding linked photos. Got a story or photo to share? Want to wish someone happy birthday or anniversary? We love your stuff from any location. Go ahead, send it in. We dare you!
Best of all, it's all free thanks to our advertisers. Enjoy and please, tell your friends. And be sure to check back often each day as the site can be updated as events occur. Follow @mybirdietweets
SOSA And The 150th Committee
What's Going On This Time Council?
Why Does SOSA Have Our Tax Dollars?
Here are some of the things people would like answers to:
* Why did council give this hastily formed group $10,000 when they were already the recipients of all the leftover cash and assets of the 150th Birthday Committee? That cash totalled some $60,000 and was given to SOSA by the 150th Birthday Committee as a legacy grant as well as the leftover chattels of the 150th committee according to what SAP has learned from documents recently obtained.
* Did the 150th Birthday Committee have the authority to give that $60,000 and assets away without consultation with mayor and council?
* Why was that $60,000 not returned to city coffers by the 150th Birthday Committee instead of giving it away? If there was a surplus, should that not be returned to the city due to it being the largest single contributor to the 150th committee with tax dollars?
* Was council part of the decision making team that created SOSA and if not, why not?
* Why has the 150th Birthday Committee not submitted a report on its spending of the half million dollars of tax dollars it was given in a formal report to council? It is now eight full months since the committee's mandate ended and surely that is enough time for any fool to produce such a report. Why are the mayor and council not demanding an accounting of that half million bucks?
* When councillor Parker tried to question why a 150th Birthday Committee report submitted to council was only a single page during a council meeting in May, why did mayor Crouse appear to be so desperate to shut him up and cease any further discussion on that single piece of paper? Look up the council meeting video on the city website for the last meeting in May and see for yourself.
* Why is tomorrow's picnic costing $73,500 and why is it being paid for with taxpayer dollars?
* Why are not such events if even necessary, not firmly controlled by city administration under the direction of city council?
* Why was the web site of the 150th Birthday Committee abruptly removed from the city's web site and replaced with a SOSA substitute? Is the city hiding something again, much like they did with the Starbucks at $ervu$ Place fiasco?
* Why did the 150th committee invite the public to submit photos of anniversary celebrations, yet not one picture was submitted that appeared on their web site.
* Why did the 150th committee website promise regular newsletters? Only six were ever issued during the anniversary year, the last being July of 2011. Nearly half a year's activities received zero promotion. Or were there any activities during the final five months of the year?
* Why did the 150th committee website announce a contest for kids, inviting kids to submit drawings to appear on the website, when not one drawing ever appeared?
* How much money was spent on the 150th Birthday souvenir items and how much merchandise went unsold? Ask anyone you meet on the street if they ever saw any 150th related material. The vast majority will answer no.
* Under the heading "Grants" on the former 150th committee website, only a single grant was shown as received by the committee, that being $75,000 from the province. What was that money spent on?
* Why was there no media coverage of any event after August 17, 2011 noted on the former website. Was there any coverage or were there no events held?
* Why did the 150th committee 'Call For Artists' to produce bronze outdoor sculptures on the website, when not a single submission was noted.
* Why did the former website show only two private donors? Is that really all the donors there were?
* Why it is widely rumoured that at least two well-known members of the 150th Birthday Committee quit the committee in disgust at the way things were being run?
Something stinks to high heaven with the 150th Birthday Committee. Will the stench carry over into the SOSA group? Are the two groups made up of the same people?
Council needs to come clean with the taxpayers of St. Albert and how their money was squandered by the 150th Birthday Committee. Either that or produce a proper public accounting to taxpayers to prove it wasn't. Is SOSA yet another private group of the privileged few quickly forming their own group, to tap tax money to spend on zero benefit events for most members of the community?
The ball is now in city council's court. Have they the cajones to face the public with the real story, or will it be fudged like the Starbucks at $ervu$ Place pack of untruths by this council? Over to you mayor and council.
+ The SOSA 2012 - 2014 Objectives and 2012 Financial Operating Plan:
Page 1
Page 2
Page 3
+ The SOSA Certificate of Incorporation
+ The SOSA 2012 Operating Budget
Page 1
Page 2
Page 3
The Photography Of Paul Dicaire
Don,
This autumn picture was taken in early October near Barry’s Bay, Ontario.
Paul Dicaire
St. Albert
__________________________________________________________________
BBC News Feed:
Welcome To St. Albert's Place Live Chat
READER RESPONSE To Live Chat:
"The law is the law"....really!!! A cop once said to me, " there's no grey area in the law"...... Really!!! ... Then what is case law? New grey area discovered every day. So you can't drive and do anything distracting at the same time!!! Eg. When a cop races after a car and talks on the radio at the same time. I can do two things at the same time ... But I'm not from Edmonton.
Linda Locicero
St. Albert
Links To Other Stories In The News:
Senator's wife charged for airplane disturbance - CBC
2 dead, 9 wounded in Empire State building shootings - CNN
Quebec woman drowns during wedding photo shoot - CTV
Jury rules for Apple in case against Samsung - Edmonton Journal
Woman dies after LRT fall - Edmonton Sun
__________________________________________________________________
The Things That People Send Us
Perhaps a bit of truth here . . .
Doggy
High
Chair
Senior Olympic Synchronized Swimming
This group get a great laugh from the crowd.
*Submitted by Geordie of the city.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________
Playing Tonight At LB's Pub
