I admit it came as no surprise to read about Abbotsford having problems with the contract and installation of the all-weather soccer fields.

Sadly, it would only surprise me if the city managed such a project without mishap and with sound management practices. Given the current council and city management, successful implementation and installation of any capital project and contract seems pretty much a Forlorn Hope.

What is of concern to me about mismanagement of the soccer fields, in contrast to the last fumbling mismanagement exercise, is the possible consequences.

Award a pool construction contract to a company who has never built a pool and you get the Centennial Pool debacle. Worst comes to worst you only have a leaky pool – and the high costs of repair. Athletes and other users are in contact with the water, not the pool structure itself.

With an all weather soccer field the athletes and other users are in direct contact with the playing surface, the structure, of the field. An artificial surface over artificial support materials, on a foundation/base prepared to provide proper support for the field.

These different layers need to be installed and bonded securely, safely and above all properly. Which is why you schedule the installation for a time of year were you could expect good, dry weather and want to have the installation done by a crew experienced in the installation of these types of materials.

Not during the cold, rainy weather of our local winter. Not with inexperienced labourers.

Because if the installation is not done RIGHT you have an increased, significantly increased, probability of the field itself causing serious or crippling injuries to the citizens of Abbotsford and visiting teams using the fields.

The question of increased risk to the safety of those using the field is what is of primary concern to me. I can live with the usual ineffective, wasteful and costly management by council and staff – as long as the safety of those using the field is not negatively affected.

Not just because of the potential for costly lawsuits, but because citizens have a right to expect the City to provide playing surfaces that are well constructed and safe for citizens and their children.

So I want to know what has council and staff done to ensure proper and safe installation?

I ‘m sickened by the damage and misery that result from the Abbotsford Salvation Army and its PR machine constantly harking upon how successful its outreach program is in housing the homeless. It present s a false and misleading picture of what is happening on the homeless front in Abbotsford, allowing “leadership” in Abbotsford to avoid taking action by citing non-existent “real results”.

The outreach program at the Salvation Army is more about generating good-looking numbers to ensure more funding than it is about generating lasting, positive results to help the homeless to move off the streets.

The public would be shocked and dismayed at the facts an independent audit of the 180 people claimed by the Salvation Army as housed. Of course, that is using my definition of what I would mean by housed: they remain in housing and off the streets at the time you claim them as being housed successfully.

This would mean that those on the list who lasted only days, weeks, until the end of the month or a month or two before ending back up on the streets would not count as successful – although they are counted “successful” in the Salvation Army’s books. It would also mean the Salvation Army could only count an individual once – not every time their outreach “successfully” placed them in housing.

Such an audit would reduce the number of “successful” outcomes in housing the homeless to a number that would not even require removing your shoes to have enough digits to total those still housed and off the streets.

Public awareness of the truth will deny city council and other community leaders false “results” to hide behind, forcing them to face reality and act. One can only hope that public scrutiny would force the Salvation Army to change focus from good-looking numbers and PR to reality-based positive outcomes and results.

Until public awareness of the facts behind the claims of “real results” occurs I can only shake my head and remember the words of Franklin D, Roosevelt “Repetition does not transform a lie into truth.”

A snarling, growling police dog lunging at your face in an apparent desire to rip it off, has to rank high on the list of really bad wakeup calls.

One supposes it is easier to intimidate the homeless when you wake them out of a peaceful sleep in the night to find a police dog straining to attack them. Their focus tends to be on the leash that is all that is keeping them from being mauled.

In case the threat of their trained attack dog is not enough to drive the homeless to find a new camping ground somewhere else, the police threatened to unleash a beast that strikes fear into any citizen who has the misfortune to become its prey – the bylaw enforcement officers.

Yes, the police told their sleep-befuddled victim that if the camp was not abandoned they would set the bylaw officers loose and all the victim’s meagre possessions would garbaged – leaving the victim helplessly exposed to the life-threatening wet and cold elements of the weather. This police statement would appear to confirm the reports made of bylaw officers looting and destroying homeless person’s possessions all over the city.

What heinous crime have these homeless people committed? Existence – worse: the audacity to exist and camp in Abbotsford and camp.

Some kids out exploring/playing/ looking for ???, had come across the camp and been “freaked out” at finding a homeless person existed in their neighbourhood. The Parents phoned the police to run off the homeless – presumably uncaring where the homeless go as long as it’s NIMBY.

Sorry, but I have to inform that this behaviour will not work. Because in some other neighbourhood some other citizen is having the police harass the homeless out of THEIR backyard. Consequently even as a homeless person is displaced from one neighbourhood, another homeless person displaced from some other neighbourhood is moving into the abandoned camp.

The pointlessness of continually wasting taxpayer’s hard-earned money to chase the homeless in endless circles around Abbotsford is not, as important point as it is, the major point we as a city, as a society, should be troubled by. Neither is the ethical questions raised by using trained police dogs to hunt down, find the camps and harass the homeless in the middle of the night.

No what I want the reader to think about is the lessons we are teaching our kids by this behaviour and the effect these lessons will have on them and the society they will make. Consider as well what this behaviour says about us and the society the kids will inherit from us.

Kindness, compassion, help, love? NO, not in this neighbourhood. People are continually complaining about the behaviour of kids today. Think about where and who they learned these decried behaviours from.

How are we teaching them to address problems and issues? Denial, pretend it does not exist or drive it into someone else’s backyard and hope they solve it. This behaviour teaches them nothing about taking responsibility, facing problems full on and thoughtfully dealing with them.

People make fun of and laugh about suits brought by children against their parents for the way they were raised. I am beginning to think that kids today have a legitimate right to sue their parents for failing to raise them in a manner that equipped them to deal with the problems and challenges they will inherit; part of the first generation of children that will inherit a world of less opportunity, lesser dreams, squandered resources and a failing ecology from their parents.

I had the distinct pleasure of watching council give approval to the Spirit Bear Centre Society proposal for a detox/recovery facility for female youth.

Personal experience has taught me that detox/treatment/recovery for youth is non-existent in this area. In truth, services for youth are virtually non-existent in this province.

Councillor Lowen was accurate about the quality of the people involved when he spoke in support of the proposal . Councilor Smith was correct when he said that we are deceiving ourselves if we do not think we have youth in our community who need this type of mentoring and recovery. He was also right that there is a need for a variety of facilities to address our communities addiction, recovery and homeless issues.

Councilor Smith was also quite correct in his statement that we want to attract and support responsible groups that are going to provide services that benefit our community. It is by welcoming and supporting people such as those at Spirit Bear that we ensure that our detox/recovery facilities are world class. As a city we have have seen what happens when you do not support good facilities and organizations.

It was positive to hear that Councillor Ross took the time to meet and inspect the premises. On the other hand it was unfortunate to hear Councillor Gill give in to the NIMBYs.

The citizens of the neighbourhood should not feel as though they have been singled out. The harsh, sad reality is that with the number of issues and thus facilities needed to address and reduce Abbotsfords social problems, all neighbourhoods in the city will be host to facilities. Reality is that the need for recovery and transition facilities in this city is deep and we want not only to put in place the structures needed, but to attract the best people and societies to be running these programs.

Bravo for council for approving this proposal and setting a precedent for approving projects filling community needs and involving good people. I would ask that council direct city staff to extend a welcome to Spirit Bear and to facilitate any needs they may have. I would also ask citizens who have the opportunity to both say “Well done” to council and lend support to Spirit Bear.

I do have a question/challenge for those who signed the petition against this proposal, a paraphrasing of John F. Kennedy. Ask not what your community can do for you, but what you can do for you community. What are you going to do to make this facility a success? They say it takes a community to raise a child. It definitely takes a community to reclaim a child or person from drugs.

This question/challenge is important not only for those of the neighbourhood, but as a question/challenge for all citizens. For in the answer lies the truth of whether Abbotsford is merely a collection of buildings? Or is Abbotsford a Community?

Mr. Beck’s return to OZ.

In the Abbotsford News of November 22/07 revisiting of Plan A one year later, City Councillor Beck is at least consistent on one matter: he obviously still inhabits the utopian dream world originally conjured up for Plan A.

What else but living in a dream world would explain Mr. Beck claiming “The worst case in Abbotsford is that the building will be self-sufficient.” Facing over $3 million per year in interest payments, hundreds of thousands of dollars for maintenance and operating costs, Mr. Beck’s “worse case” is $0? It would seem that any prudent businessman or citizen with common sense would rationally see and be concerned about taxpayers easily being out of pocket a figure with up to six zeros behind it.

Living in a world of pipe dreams would also explain how Mr. Beck “highlighted Elton John, Billie Joel …” when speaking of other entertainment possibilities for the facility. I do not feel it appropriate to comment on a hockey tenant that at this time continues to be an insubstantial figment of the council’s imagination.

In reference to capital projects in Langley and Chilliwack, it should be noted that in cities other than Abbotsford, capital projects are part of a capital planning process and there is opportunity and time for the public to express concerns and get answers. Abbotsford is the city where major capital projects are hastily thrown together into one big lump and rushed through with out due diligence, care or public consultation.

Council and its members had a right to express a position on Plan A and to promote their position. It did not have a right to abuse the power and position of the city and council to deny access and expression of their point of view to those who opposed Plan A. It did not have a right to recklessly spend city a large amount of funds to win the referendum. Most of all it did not have a right to lie to the citizens of Abbotsford about the amount being spent to promote Plan A.

It is a matter of public record that Mr. Beck and council insisted that they only were spending $40,000 on promoting Plan A. It was only through the filing of a Freedom of Information request that the actual spending of $140,000, 250% more than claimed and attested to by Mr. Beck and fellow councillors, was revealed to the public as the actual costs.

The old scare tactic of Mr. Beck’s “an extra $6.5 million to build the facility” is, given the way the economy is going, looking less and less likely a realistic scenario and that in reality there will savings and bargains available to prudent project developers and builders as the peak building boom passes and construction companies search for work.

The real point is that in light of the increased cost we know of, approximately $23 million revealed so far, $6.5 million looks like a real steal of a deal. Because, despite Mr. Beck’s glib assurances otherwise, we have no solid or real idea of what the final bill for this botched mess will be.

One can only hope that the final cost of Plan A does not include paying the costs of boondoggles such as the trip for Mr. Beck and the approximately 50 businessmen going to the Everett Events Center. Whether those costs are paid directly by the City or an attempt is made to hide the costs in Global Spectrum by ignoring the fact the City is already paying Global Spectrum.

If those going to Everett are not paying their way, then we taxpayers are and those costs are part of the cost of Plan A. At least in the real world; in the utopian dream world conjured up by council for Plan A …??