Bruderheim Residents Committee

Bruderheim Residents Committee

A few notes on the town council meeting 2005 06 15

Dated 2005 06 20

Friends and Neighbours,

First of all, many thanks to all of you that came to attend the last town council meeting.  Out of 24 people who had promised to come a full 22 attended, and two were for good reasons unable to come.  The job comes first, and the two that could not come have a living to make and had important vital deadlines to meet.

A lot of things happened during the past week, and I am not so sure whether you saw all of the updates that were made to the web pages for Bruderheim that I had set up.

The day before yesterday I took a photo of the intersection of 52nd Ave and 51st Street, to record the problem with the flooding that happens there every time there is a half-inch of rain or so.  I can't at all blame the owner for selling his house at the corner of that intersection.  Let's hope that the new owner will be happier with living an amphibious existence in that location.

Then yesterday I took some photos of ox-eyed daisies (officially a noxious weed) that are growing on property on the east-side of Brookside that is, for all I know, looked after by our town administration.

The reason for taking photos of those innocent-looking flowers was that the Kaus sisters (one of whom I helped Elaine Loeffelmann to bring to the Royal Alex just last week, so that the doctors could cut off another piece of her right leg, above her knee) received a letter informing them that they were violating the noxious weeds bylaw.  The Kaus sisters are in the late 70s and early 80s, not quite strong enough or able to look after the ox-eyed daisy problem on their property.

[Update 2005 07 01: The problems with the ox-eyed daisies have since been resolved.  Alfred Loeffelmann cut the grass at the Kaus' residence, and the Town cut down the ox-eyed daisies in Brookside.]

However, our town administration has the ability, the strength and the machinery handy to look after problems on the town's properties.  Did the town, too, receive a letter from Strathcona Bylaw Enforcement telling the town to remove the noxious weeds on its properties?

The ox-eyed daisies in Brookside were on property owned by a developer.  Will the developer receive a bill for the work that the Town did there?

The recurring flooding of the intersection at 51st Street and 52nd Avenue

The recurring flooding problem at that location is caused by the fact that the run-off of the water at that intersection is blocked by a badly designed drainage ditch running along the south side of 52nd Ave.  Apparently the run-off water is expected to run uphill over a hump in the ditch.  The run-off water knows no better than to follow the laws of gravity and must therefore find ways to seep through the ground and away.  It is to be expected that the pavement at this intersection will in short order begin to succumb to the frost heaves that have begun to develop there.

It may come as a surprise to those responsible for the accelerating deterioration of the pavement at that intersection that a couple of hours of back-hoe work will prevent major road-reconstruction work from becoming necessary.  That looming road repair will cost many times the expenses necessary to prevent the pavement from becoming destroyed through apparently deliberately caused lack of proper drainage.

Update 2005 08 03

On the morning of August 3rd 2005 the town crew came out full force and began to grade the ditch west from 51st Street along 52nd Avenue.  Finally, the hump in the ditch that prevented the water draining off 51st St and 52nd Avenue from running off through the ditch will be gone.  What a relief that will be when it rains now and the intersection at this location will no longer be flooded.  A side bonus will be that the back alley running west of 51st street will not become flooded anymore either. 
   The bad news is: that still doesn't get the potholes in that back alley filled in, but it is a good start.  Maybe the next step will be to bring in a pick-up load of gravel for the back alley.  There certainly are a few people in that neighbourhood that would do the required work of picking up the gravel and spreading it out where needed.  Unfortunately, the town crew doesn't wish to have anyone do the work that it feels it must do and is too busy to get done.  So, there is nothing but having to wait for that problem to get fixed, too.

At any rate, it is truly much appreciated by all to no longer having to be scared to drive through this intersection when it rains.
   Will the pavement that got damaged by the water often standing on this intersection now be repaired, too, before frost heaves wreck it for good?

In the meantime, you may wish to take another look at the warts and blemishes maintained by our town administration in our otherwise beautiful and largely unblemished town.

Check http://fathersforlife.org/Bruderheim.

Even though our resolution was formally handed over to the town council, the town council purposely failed to address it during the official portion of their last meeting.  It appears that the minutes of the town council meeting mention nothing more on the issues of concern to us than that some correspondence was received from Bruderheim residents, without any motion having been made as to what to do about any follow-up actions that may be required to resolve our concerns. (See the resolutions)

Leo Genier and I as well as some other Bruderheim residents will be at the next town council meeting.  We hope that you can make it, too.  It may be a good idea to bring a camping stool or two along, as at the last meeting we were received with somewhat less then the level of hospitality that acceptable social standards would provide for.   Although the town office had been informed more than once prior to the meeting that about 20 Bruderheim residents would attend, no extra chairs for the extra visitors had been provided.  Some of us had to stand in the foyer of the town office throughout the whole meeting, and the acoustics for those that did not fit into the council chambers were less than acceptable.  It was impossible for some of those in the foyer to understand what was being said in the council chamber.

When it was suggested that it would be no problem at all to move the meeting across the street to the Bruderheim Board room, where there is more than enough space to have comfortably accommodated all of those present, Jack Lambert refused.  Quite clearly, we got the message that we were not welcome to observe the town council meeting.  At least in that respect the attitude of the newly elected town council is no different from the attitude of the one it replaced.

By the way, Jack Lambert, our mayor, expressed the sentiment at the last town council meeting that if all of us there would concern ourselves less with having the town enforcing its bylaws, and if we were to join existing volunteer organizations, things would look a lot better in Bruderheim.  I don't know about you, but, given the amount of work Leo, I and many others of those that attended the meeting have done and are doing for the town, I found that remark uncalled for and insulting.

All the best,

Walter Schneider

Update 2005 08 08: Apparently Jack Lambert truly feels that any concerns expressed by Bruderheim residents to the town council are a nuisance and interfere with the exercise of his office. 
   On July 22nd I had to bring our car to Darren Christofferson's garage to get a starter problem fixed.  Leo Genier drove our truck over and waited for me in front on Darren's garage.  Just as I got into our truck and got ready to drive back home, Jack Lambert came sauntering along the road and asked us, "What are you boys checking out now?"  Leo told him.  During the ensuing discussion Jack Lambert said, "You know, the problem is that you guys have too much time on your hands." 

Dear Jack:  Let me give you the definition of an ad-hominem attack:

Main Entry: 1ad ho·mi·nem Pronunciation: (')ad-'hä-m&-"nem, -n&m Function: adjective Etymology: New Latin, literally, to the person 1 : appealing to feelings or prejudices rather than intellect 2 : marked by an attack on an opponent's character rather than by an answer to the contentions made Source: Merriam Webster's Online Dictionary

(More about the logical fallacy of an ad-hominem attack at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ad_hominem)

Jack, having been elected in October 2004, you are relatively new on the job, a job that you, as you have done your best to demonstrate, know little about.   We will all do our best to help you out.  That is for the common good.  Get a grip on yourself.  By cooperating we can all make a big difference. 
   You have a lot to learn.  Most of all, you need to learn respect for your elders and not to insult them.  Jack, you very deeply hurt Leo, a man who tried his utmost for more than the last eight years — and who succeeded in doing it very well — to make a difference in our community.  Can all of us honestly say that we have done as much for our properties to make them look nice and something attractive for our community to be proud of as Leo did for his?
   Jack, your prime objective must be to represent the people that elected you, not to oppose them and to belittle and to obfuscate their concerns.  Following your remark, Leo came within a hair's breadth of selling his home and moving out of Bruderheim.  Do you want to go down in Bruderheim's history as the mayor who did his best not to attract people but to chase them out?

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Next: Notes on town council meeting 2005 07 06

Back to index page for Impressions and Ideas on how to make Bruderheim even better

____________________
Posted July 10, 2005
Updates:
2005 08 03 (added progress report on the elimination of the flooding problem at 51st St and 52nd Ave)
2005 08 08 (added update 2005 08 08 "message to Jacl Lambert")
2006 10 29 (reformated)