Well, after writing this post and following it up with this post, our mayor used a little loop hole thing where after something has been voted on in council, the mayor can bring it forward for another vote within a month. So I guess they worked hard on Mary Mallerby to get her to change her mind and she did. They had another vote a month later and she switched sides. Council ended up calling for a referendum on the subject.
Mary Mallerby was quoted in the paper as saying that she was going with the 'silent majority' on this matter. This would be instead of the 100's of people who phoned her asking her to vote against the proposal to change the status of this farmland to 'non-farm use' so that a sports complex could be built upon it. I know that 100's of people phoned her against and almost none for this proposal because she told me so herself when I called her. I am sure this 'silent majority' quote is going to haunt her for sometime - hopefully follow her right out of office.
So a referendum was set for December 15 to see if an application should be sent to the ALC to have the status of this actively farmed land changed. I was helped with the 'no' side. And on Saturday, with a HUGE voter turn out and 65% voted against. So for awhile anyways, we have managed to preserve this chunk of farmland.
And I am heartened by my community's response. I know some of that 'no' vote was a 'not in my back yard' response but I hope that a lot of that vote came from a growing realization of the importance of local farmland and food security. I hope that as a community we are shifting to a more sustainable paradigm. And I am grateful for men like Jim Garlick who stuck his neck out there for something important that he believed in. I so grateful to him and others like him who are willing to give so much of their time for all of us!
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