October 7, 2022 – Not everyone has the resources that ROTHMAR Holdings CEO Aaron Bell does. He hired renowned PR firm Edelman who managed to get CTV to come to Cornwall and help expose just a hint of the mess that lies at a very corrupt City Hall.
Rothmar claims:
Rothmar has issued 4 applications to challenge review letters issued by the city’s Chief Building Official that have effectively closed down the company’s work. This has not only cost Rothmar over $1 million, a full construction season of work has been lost which in turn has cost the local trades employed by the company hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Rothmar Holdings
The company also claims that:
“The dispute is between one of our sister companies and the City over the sale/expropriation of a piece of land that the City says it requires. City officials were not pleased with our decision to involve an expropriation lawyer in the process.
Aaron Bell CEO Rothmar Holdings
While certain friendly firms get fast tracked, many have to wait years to move forward. For example, how long did permits take for Councilor Towndale’s business that he was a partner of when it opened? Pretty darn fast compared to many others in the city.
There already is at least one other lawsuit against the city as Wyatt Walsh has been trying to get his triplex built since 2018 with one hurdle after the other even though engineers and architects signed off on his project. He had plans to build another, but the losses he blames on the city may impact that project.
Loading ...How many are homeless or under housed because of the Housing crisis in Cornwall that’s fueled by this sort of nonsense and horrible policy that led to hundreds of city apartment units going condo over the last decade?
https://ottawa.ctvnews.ca/video?clipId=2535966&jwsource=cl
Of course there was no coincidence of Mr. Towndale being present for the interview. He is after all running for mayor against the corrupt Cornwall Mayor Glen Grant, who was in fact not elected, but put in place by council after the equally corrupt Mayor Bernadette Clement was given a Senate appointment.
Oddly enough both Clement and Grant broke the rules when running for mayor, but both were let off the hook.
As for Mr. Towndale’s claim of the issue not coming to Council, it is no secret that there’s a permit problem in Cornwall, and council surely would be aware of the meeting between Rothmar, the Mayor, and CEO Maureen Adams early in 2022? If council wasn’t aware it’s a failure of systems of a City Hall that leads an inept, weak, and corrupt Council that lets its bureaucrats run amok costing Tax Payers millions.
For many builders and contractors in the Cornwall area there are no cushy Senate appointments or alleged numbered bank accounts connected to large dollar projects like the Benson Centre.
Over one dozen builders and contractors have said to CFN that they will no longer work in Cornwall due to the “amateur hour” as one defined it until things clearly change. Builders have trouble booking workers and when the city pulls permits already approved or causes delay these workers end up on other jobs; many just over the border in South Stormont.
Several in the trades stated that when Karl Doyle left Cornwall, and moved to South Stormont that it was the final straw for them.
An in camera meeting is slated for Tuesday at City Hall where most likely the most junior inspector (whose been fingered by both lawsuits) will be thrown under the bus and blamed for the scandal, but the problems are deeper. There simply is too much corruption in Cornwall. There simply are too many hurdles for some to overcome to do business in this city, and it won’t change until there’s change at City Hall from top to bottom.
Like they say “You get the government you deserve.”
jamie@cornwallfreenews.com
Voters of Cornwall,
Seriously, just how important is it to provide housing to people in need? It only encourages them to hang around …far better to sink $7 million little dollars into a home for Cornwall’s amateur thespians and to house the wider arts community in vanity pursuits.
And why concern ourselves with putting a roof over the heads of the homeless or cash strapped working poor? We have roadways in far more serious need of painted rainbows …and really, a dumb roof over someone’s head or unicorns and rainbows under our feet? It’s a “no brainer”.
And for the cry babies in affordable or geared to income housing, be thankful with what you have, all your crying for playground improvements for your too many children, or providing them with a totally waste of time “splash pad” … give it a rest, we are in far more need of providing a dog park; a judgment-free space to sniff butts.
Let’s use our votes wisely, and make energy conservation the goal this election. Put every city councillor back in office …let gravity do it’s job.
Nat C.