Madhunt Publishing Company
Alliston, Ontario
705-435-6146

Madhunt Publishing Company
founded March 22, 1999.

New Tecumseth Free Press Online
First Posted April 30, 1999

To email: Tony Veltri .

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'It's all about how to handle a situation'

to the editor,

It's good to see my old nemesis David Griffin has in-depth knowledge of arcane rules passed by the Ontario legislature in 1996. I would hazard a guess that one business person in a 10,000 is aware of the 1996 fire code.

I found out about the regulations when I bumped into Simon Worley while he was inspecting my building about two years ago

I'm also betting that just about every building owner in Alliston was unaware of the 1996 legislation until Simon turned up as the fire safety inspector. I asked Simon if my building was okay He told me there were no problems, and that the building was up to code. Notwithstanding the fact that I made absolutely no changes to it since 1985.

I am not sure how many other old buildings on the main street had problems similar to those of the Circle Theatre. To the best of my knowledge the Circle was the only building on the main street subjected to the 1996 Ontario Fire Code.

Now as far as the safety factor is concerned regarding the Circle Theatre, up until the town hired Simon Worley as the fire safety inspector, the Circle Theatre was considered safe. Shortly after the hiring of Simon, the Circle Theatre is unsafe. Kinda reminds me of the seat rules in an airplane. If your seat is six inches to the rear and the plane crashes you die, however if the seat is not six inches to the rear and the plane crashes you might live.

Sometimes rules can overwhelm a person. I know, I know, rules are rules.

I have rules for my parking lot. Upon entering the parking lot there is a fairly large sign that states "Private Parking for Tenants of 27 Victoria St Only. All other cars are subject to towing." Guess whose truck has been seen there parking against the rules? Yep, Simon's truck. The red one. The red one marked "Town of New Tecumseth Fire Department." Oh Dave, the Fire Chief has also utilized my parking lot to park his fire truck.

You see Dave, rules are rules. But common sense prevailed and I did not tow either vehicle from the parking lot. I think I might have left a little note on the windshield but did not tow them. Why? because both Simon and Dan are pretty nice guys, and Town employees.

It's all about common sense. It's all about how to handle a situation. If the Circle Theath situation had been handled with common sense in the first place I would not be bothering to reply to your letter.

And Dave, what I mean by a common sense way of handling things is the "small town" way of doing things versus the "big city" way of doing things.

The initial response was to handle the situation in a "big city" way - using the courts to go after the Circle Theatre.

Instead, New Tecumseth stepped in to help, and the situation was finally resolved in a "small town" way. I would like to thank Mayor Mike MacEachern and Gayla McDonald for helping to resolve this issue, and especially all the good people in Alliston for understanding how important town landmarks, like the Circle Theatre, are to the community.

Wayne Hutchinson,
Alliston