Wilmot Township is in dire need of some politicians with the guts to take charge of the staff.
I have just learned that an official from the Wilmot Township fire department tried
to shut down a twilight meeting of local Holstein breeders. Really!
He arrived at the farm just hours before the meeting was to take place and told the farmer the meeting could not go ahead.
The farmer was understandably angry and immediately called the organizer, John Nederend of Breslau.
Nederend got on the blower and talked to a couple of Wilmot Township councillors and the mayor, and the meeting went ahead as scheduled.
But this leaves farmers wondering whether they will face similar hassles whenever they want to hold a barn meeting.
This is far from the first time Wilmot Township officials have confronted barn owners over gatherings in their barns. Among those shut down are a woman hosting a meetings for a group of grieving widows in her Grieving Barn, a book club that met routinely in the Story Barn and a family whose son used the White Barn for band practices and small concerts.
In those three cases, the township could cite new provincial Fire Code and Building Code standards that apply to "assembly occupancy". The fire department inspector had little choice because the law is the law and he was reacting to a complaint.
He was apparently reacting to a complaint about the Holstein Club's Twilight Meeting, but this is ridiculous. This is not "assembly occupancy" by any stretch of the imagination. The law was never intended to prevent farm auctions, open houses or meetings of farmers to deal with practical farming issues.
This is over-zealous abuse of power. And it's far from the first or only example in Wilmot Township.
I am told that no contractor will even try to get permission to install a swimming pool in Wilmot Township.
I am told that Herrle's highly-popular on-farm retail outlet was fined $150 because the contractor, who was not yet finished an addition, had failed to apply an insulation sticker.
I am told that a farmer who wanted to move a laneway from right beside his house to a sideroad was denied permission, even though there is an alternative roadway access at that sideroad location.
I know that a farmer who sets up a highly-popular Pumpkin Patch each fall was forced to move a roadside sign about two feet. Two lousy feet!
It's high time the politicians of Wilmot Township took control of the staff and started applying some common sense and decency in the application of regulations to citizens.
Maybe they're afraid of a wrongful dismissal suit. That's no excuse for allowing flagrant abuses of power to continue.
