It's an old ploy, old as the dunes and if you think about it, right up the alley of what Robbie Robinson does for a living (a teeny detail conveniently omitted from the article) -- the basic idea is that if you ring the same bell loud enough enough times, the dogs will salivate out of boredom.

I do notice, considering I know for fact that CFOS owner and chief editor knows all about this site, that there's never any mention of what's said here. Zip. As if we didn't exist, or maybe, as if this collection of mimeograph handbills passed out by streetcorner radicals was some kind of professional competitor, or worse, a threat. Don't plug the SBP, we might lose market share! and funny that, considering it's an open door, anyone can play, even them. But journalism doesn't think that way, it doesn't think "where can I find the story" as much as "how can I sell airtime?" and so they go for the loudest bell that rings the longest.

But the thing is, our conversations here are not only recorded and Google-indexed for later retrieval, but our conversations here are also timestamped and sorted, giving a clear picture of what gets said when.

This way, when all the other media have given up, when all the Orensteins wring their hands for the last time and walk away in disgust from the kangaroo-court process, even when all of us have given up and conceded that we just can't shout above their well-funded assertion din, after all that and where in a prior age it would leave no one standing but the profiting Yea-side, even as the first trucks begin the no-return deconstruction of Sauble Beach, what we've all said here will live on, still showing up when people search the right key names and phrases.

I'm taking some comfort in that.

Sabrinus this was a staged event. People who had something to gain were invited to participate. The strategy was to head off a small revolt in Council when the futility of applying again made them all look like fools. It was only the foolish five who voed to proceed and thus wasted a genuine opportunity to apply for funding for any realistic project needed in South Bruce.

They are applying again this time with a letter from Grey-Bruce Health saying they need this infrastructure. Unfortunately the Environmental Assessment document of year 2000 that is being used to base the application does not support Hazel Lynn's argument that we need this infrastructure.

Also there are two "show stoppers" in place that will prevent this project from moving forward. The proposed location for the sewage teatment plant is just east of the D Line and south of the Sauble River. The Ministry of the Environment will make sure there is an ammendment to the EA including a public meeting and a 30 day period to post bump ups before they issue a certificate. The bump ups will take years to sort out. I am pretty sure the people who live east of the D Line will not wish to smell the collected waste.

The second show stopper is that the Wiarton water treatment plant is too small to supply the pipelne. No MOE certificate again until completion of a Class B EA. It will be easy to bump it to a class C and again the bump ups will take years. The present mandate will run out.

Unfortunately the Powerbudd fiasco cost the taxpayers $246,000 out of this years budget and residents of Mallory Beach, Red Bay and other areas will wonder why they paid for this. Now they will spend more money to update the COMRIF application.

The last application was for a $78.5 million dollar project. Given that about $3 million in pipe is paid for at Sauble now the cost will still be at least $85 million next year.

Waste of money to apply for it but the real shame is the lost chance to apply for something useful.

On top of all this all federal participation in grants now requires a Sustainable Development EA which is a federal EA again with public meetings and a chance to post bump ups.

Mayor Noble can stage any bit of a show when he wants. It will keep the local developers off his back. The ones who really count have already packed their bags.

Jim Simpson's letter in the Sun Times and the ECHO is correct. There is way too much money still being wasted.

The Feb.10 Sun Times has an interesting article on the latest act of insanity dealing with Mayor Noble's failed attempt to bring water and sewer infrastructure to Hepworth and Sauble Beach.

I have been reading the package containing the 5 pages of disinformation that Mayor Noble signed and sent out, in December, to about 400 election candidates for the federal election. Well there were 400 copies made in any case, it is unclear how many were sent. I said disinformation but it is also a combination of push-poll and blackmail. Any politician who received it should have recognized it as pure unsubstantiated drivel.

It is my opinion that the staff that wrote this POS should be fired for attempting to coerce Industry Canada by providing federal candidates with false information then asking them to declare support in writing for municipal water and sewer services for Sauble Beach and Hepworth. Over his signature Noble threatens the candidates, saying several hundred thousand visitors, some of them your -riding- voters will be anxious to witness your support of this vital project. Yes it is political blackmail.

Noble pretends to speak on our behalf, saying, we take this opportunity to alert you to the urgently needed water and sewer project. He goes on.... These services will ensure health, generate millions of tax dollars from development and protect our beach and the environment. He never mentioned the resulting footprint or fiscal cost that unrestrained development would have on our community but he did mention that development was for now, halted. He did describe it as a negative that six major housing projects, a 5-Star campground and a golf course cannot proceed.

Too bad Carl, those wetlands and all that open space will just have to stay with the poor hapless residents for a while longer. I am sure we can make do with growth at a slow and measured pace and live with lower costs than we would have if we let the developers into our community.

There are seven points listed in this document that destroy it's credibility. For example it says, innocent people in neighbouring Hepworth have been forced to leave their homes. Hogwash. It never happened. Why can't Noble respect the privacy of these folks and stop trying to manipulate them.

The document says a looming beach closure due to contaminated lake waters is the kiss of death for Sauble Beach. Huh? The wooden septic-holding tanks that were found leaking near the main street were cleaned up decades ago. Other than that no leakage has ever been established. The Water and Sewer EA said 90% of the organic load on the beach comes from the Sauble River. Spend a lot, fix nothing.

The document says in italics:
This area is a ticking time bomb! We must have these services to avoid another Walkerton tragedy.

Oh right! The only people still dealing with this issue seem to be placed in Wiarton. Other than the fact they want to give Wiarton's paid for surplus water capacity to Sauble Beach and Hepworth I see no role for Wiarton in this at all. The two declared candidates for Mayor, Carl Noble and his stanch supporter until recently, John Close will just give us more of the same. Why do we need them?

Interesting that Sauble Beach net assessment went up while Wiarton's went down this year. We could have a great community partnership but we are being manipulated in not so subtile ways. We are not helpless and we will not be a cash source for developers. Noble will finish his term without ever putting a shovel in the ground. Bad planning, poor leadership, fiscal waste and lost opportunity will be the hallmarks of the Noble term.

Every Council should be a reflection of the leadership of the Mayor. It is telling that Noble declared this one one of the worst Councils ever.

Now we have seen an act of the political end game directing staff to do the dirty work that a good Council would disavow. How many staff will he take down with him?

Dodge

Thanks for the info Dodge. Much appreciated. It seems your knowledge is more than casual. Perhaps you are/were a developer yourself?

Do you think you could find out who the principals are in the Sauble Beach Development Corporation? I have an idea of who one might be...we call him Slippery Joe (and for good reason!)...perhaps you know of whom I speak...

sabrinus

Not a developer, no.. Now about the backers. I do not know who they are. The stories I have heard are speculative and rhetorical and should be treated as such.

When the parking fee was unexpectedly reduced to $5 from $10 it damaged the plan to create a parking lot on the beach between 5th and 6th St which J owns or controls. This parking lot was an attempt to generate income from land which is part of a parcel supposedly owned by a group of Hamilton? lawyers who are pretty ticked off that there is no water and sewer infrastructure in place to support their plan for high density housing development. There may be a level of frustration present.

Aside: By the way did you know all the signs were made for $10 parking and had to be made again with the surprise Wunderlich/Kirkland strategy to reduce it to $5? We paid for them twice.

History: J had moved through the range of polite request to hinting at legal action if he did not get Council's blessing for his parking lot. His precedent is the Twining parking area. The parcel in question was part of a tract aquired from Percy Noble or his estate. Also the story goes that Percy offered the beach section to Council of the day years ago for $5000 but they declined. Anyway the parcel also included land between 5th and 6th at the highway and what else I don't know. It all came together including the beach.

The big killing for developers is always made by turning land banks into high density housing ( for example links and sub 30 foot lots ) and as every first year planner knows, developers always follow sewer lines. Whoever these backers are they are not getting what they need most.

Little has been said in public since Council dealt with the issue of a beach parking lot in camera, but what has been said is that J could go ahead and sue later if stopped or that a suit was possible if he was blocked. This lends some credence to the lawyer developer angle but again let me repeat this is speculation. The next five years will reveal where the weight is. Meanwhile what Dodge hears is that Council thinks there is no way J will ever see his plan come to fruition. Well...a lot depends on what happens with parking and who gets elected in '06 and the exaggerated weight that tourism as a revenue generator is given up and down the Bruce. (There is a study in progress on that but that is another matter.) If tourist promotion is recognized as revenue negative for taxpayers who pay for it, it could bring a kind of balance to the Beach again. If promotion is intensified then people who hold revenue generating land will make it work for them and the rest of us will be paying the bills for extra policing and emptying other people's sh* out of the holding tanks at the beach washrooms.

My interests lie in preserving a quasi rural community with a definite character and lots of open space mixed in with old and new residences. As every planner knows the loss of open space that comes with housing intensification following infrastructure development seems to be the catalyst that signals the end of community uniqueness.

Dian Wood had lots of support for her save our natural retreat group when they were active a year ago. I think there is a unique and strong core community here but there are layers of intrigue with developers that cloud your vision of what could be.

What is sustainable for our community? Probably slow growth at a measured pace and a government that is good at delivering basic services without the frills. Sustainable development must be in the cards and understood by the next Council or we can give it all away.

Prince Edward County put the run on developers several years ago by controlling development to existing services. They had a very progessive government. You can research it on the net.

Sorry Sabrinus, long answer to a short question.

At the recent AMO conference (Association of Municipalities) in Toronto the Minister of Infrastructure Hon David Caplan told Noble's delegation that the most they could ever hope to get for the grand scheme was 8 to 10 million.

The province has ended this thing. Perhaps now they will apply in Sept. to COMRIF for something useful.

Don't know what the spin will be. Developers who need sewer lines will have to look elsewhere.

More on Blue Flag
Take this as a negative impact of Blue Flag. This is a quote from the Town of South Bruce Peninsula presentation dated August 12 2005:

"The recent Blue Flag designation will vault Sauble Beach into the international tourism spotlight, which will further increase tourism in the area, but will consequently put pressure on the water supplying aquifers."

I think the residents have a reasonable expectation that the aquifer will to be protected not mined for a few extra dollars on main street.

Thanks for the update re: Mayor (ig)Noble's pipe dream being trashed. Good news indeed. His legacy will involve nothing but monies misspent and the use of child-molesting lawyers in his myopic quest to appease greedy developers.

Of course, it ain't over until the fat lady sings, but this latest info bodes well for the "ordinary people" of SBP.

Blue Flag is a wolf in sheep's clothing. Dressed up as an environmental showcase, the real intent is to bring tourism dollars to businesses that line the shores of lakes and seas around the world. It's a scam.

I challenge anyone on this board (c'mon, there are a heck of a lot of silent lurkers, by the looks of it) to list one single real benefit that this "program" brings to the ordinary joe. One. Just one.

sabrinus

"The Earth does not belong to Man. Man belongs to the Earth.
Man does not weave the web of life. He is merely a strand it it.
Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself."

Chief Seathl

In 2004 Mayor Noble said in the Echo he would spend millions to get the dream under way. That was typical of his single minded drive to bring the project to fruition. This drive and energy that he has put into reaching his goal has often seen him on the wrong side of his resident constituents. He has always resisted the idea of downsizing and as the first two posts describe his strategy has been weak of late. It was a circling of the wagons for a last stand.

Mayor Noble has finally capitulated on his all or nothing strategy.

A meeting has been set for August 31 to figure out how to downsize the project and report back to Council on Sept 6 in time to do a new COMRIF application. In attendance will be Mayor Noble, Councillors Herron and Kirkland and Henderson Paddon Engineering. Noble's presence means he is going to salvage what he can in the retreat.

Notably absent on my list are Wunderlich and Fulford, two of the voting five, all who have put us in this predicament. Herron has the most experience with this issue and is one of three women Councillors who often do not support the votng five.

Here is the problem:

The EA will not now cover a new downsized plan and the five year sunset is coming to play in any case.

As of right now Sauble Beach is no longer a growth area no matter what the Bruce County Plan says. We`are five years too late in acting on a smaller plan. In 2001 the MOE would still allow a single service plan but not anymore. Now it is water and sewer or nothing. Double your cost to fix problems in the core area. This can't be solved in a week.

The real news is not in the ST or on Radio 106 it is here on Garym's site.

Probably the best course of action is to redefine the problem water area at Sauble with a more honest appraisal of just what the actual area is. By and large most of us get by just fine if we follow the rules on distance and install a proper sandpoint. I have seen many improperly installed points and I reject any water quality data that does not exclude them.

Guidelines are here: http://www.ene.gov.on.ca/cons/4505e.htm

Well owners also have rules to follow.

What is the geographical extent of the lots that are too small for private services?

Going back to the August 2000 public meeting for the Water and Sewer Environmental Assessment, I quote Bill Ferris a former Amabel Reeve:

"many of the lots east of 3rd Ave. are large enough to support their own water and sewage systems."

Also Bill reported in another public meeting in 1996 that some combining of properties was taking place. This is part of the leave things alone and they will find the natural solution school.
Since we now can install approved raised filter beds that require less space and advanced water treament technology for single dwellings there are many variables to consider. Sauble also has a pending sewage system inspection plan which should give reasonable confidence to the expectation that your neighbours are maintaining their systems.

We are left with a small core area of properties that are too small to have private services. These property owners will have a choice to make between the new status quo with inspection and some expensive alternatives.

Either way the goal of aquifer protection will be satisfied. That is the baseline municipality interest.

The next move will be interesting.

I see the Owen Sound Radio News has finally caught on to this story....
Noble is quoted

"He says the town will now be looking to see if the Federal government has funding for half the project. Noble says this would mean that the municipality would have to pay for the other half."

That would be half of a project that was costed at $78.5 million 18 months ago. Now do you suppose the residents of Sauble Beach and Hepworth could go after Fulford and Kirkland on this? Both are on record saying that they are out if there is less than 2/3 funding.

We actually pay our elected council and our staff to work on this? Talk about wasted money.

Just 30 people turned out for a meeting on the Wiarton School. Looks like Sauble Beach Ratepayers are going to be on the hook for this money pit for the next decade. Wiarton would be under water again without us and the talk I have heard about setting them adrift is starting to take on a tone of reality.