Wednesday, December 17, 2014

BEWARE THE GRINCH



Well, that's the best we can do for now. This is the guy behind a number of companies. Black Bear Homes. Clap Board Homes, etc. The house that was "sold" on Cherrywood was not really sold. It now sports a dollar store "For Sale" sign. Houses being built on Schooley Road are way over-priced and the property at Queen's Circle that has been stripped down to the studs is listed at close to a million.

This guy has a long history of scamming investors. He served jail time for bilking family members and even his pastor out of millions. And he has recently settled in town with his many business names and owning exactly nothing in his own name. The phone number provided for Black Bear Homes is a Welland/Font Hill telephone number.  He used to live in Fonthill in a rented house there. We're not sure where he lives now, but he has five children so they may be difficult to hide in a small town like Ridgeway or Crystal Beach.

What we don't need is another con artist in town. Enough already.  Please look at the previous post and read the links provided.  

Gary Fraser has been appointed to the Crystal Beach Business Improvement Area Board and he is a convicted fraudster.   Please call town hall and demand that he be removed from that position.

An on-line petition may be a good idea. Meanwhile, don't let this Grinch ruin your holidays.

IN OTHER NEWS:

It seems that the powers that be are determined to place medical marijuana grow ops in residential areas.  Heard just this morning on CKTB radio, Niagara Falls Councillor Carolyn Iaononni says she was "blindsided" by a recent application to rezone two former properties to allow for "a nursery to grow plants, shrubs and trees." The application for the former Kimberly Clark plant and the Redpath Sugar building are slated to be  medical marijuana grow operations. Residents  were not informed that the "nursery" was to be a medical marijuana grow op. If they had known, they would have "turned out in droves" according to Iaononni. She stated that she is not against medical marijuana grow ops, but she does not want to see them in residential areas for many reasons, including security concerns.

It seems now that the neighbours only recourse is to appeal the rezoning to the Ontario Municipal Board (OMB).  And we all know how that usually turns out.  Similar to a situation in Fort Erie where a medical marijuana grow op is slated for a site in a residential neighbourhood.

25 comments:

  1. What is it about real estate that brings out this type of individual. Maybe that toxic mix of emotionality and the need for people to live somewhere? The business is full of bumpersticker type sayings that more than just speak to that type of thinking. "Dreamhome", "steps to the beach", "good place to raise kids", "seller motivated", can be seen in almost any group of listings. After all the seller signs on the line, a binding contract, the holder of the contract sits back and waits for phone calls, may not even do their own "showings", and collects an unusually fat commission when the deal "closes". Does it get any easier? Some of the goings on in that business would make stockpromoters blush. Gafraz and types like that enjoy all the low hanging fruit while honest people in the business look away shaking their heads. Remember, the school of hard knocks is where you learn the lesson AFTER you fail the test. The people cheated by that member of the CBBIA learned their lesson. The question is how and when is GF giong to learn his and go out and at least try to make an honest living. And not in real estate, maybe on a sheep farm where " fleecing the lambs" will actually produce a useable commodity.

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  2. FE needs another lowlife scuzbag picking the bones of this dead horse clean. Cause we don't have enough of the homegrown version already. 300 plus ol boys will likely agree with me as GF isn't threatening their freeeeeeeeeee lunch at he public trough.

    Fort Stupid, 1 week of the ol boys return to power and taxes increase by 9% and Jimmie Dirt Bag is already looking for another measly 500,000 tax payer dollars to make disappear and no questions are allowed.

    Don't expect the watchdog of any democracy to do it's job, as James Culic has replaced Uncle Dougie's nephew as chief spin doctor of our non existent investigative press. Must be the free beer and that big pat on the back. It's nice to belong to an exclusive club eh James??

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  3. Culic will say whatever it takes to keep his job. The editor is the puppet of the publisher and can be replaced on a whim if the publisher and his associates feel the editor isnt doing a good job. Or if he is doing too good of a job and allowing articles to be published that expose the truth about certain corrupt practices in town government. The editors "editorial" is usually a joke going on about some small detail you might hear two strangers small talking about while their laundry dries at a local laundrymat. Its that deep. An awfull lot about what he isn't, no tree hugging hippie, no supporter of the white poppy idea etc...etc..Real deep stuff.What else could a reader expect from an individual who spends so much time looking at an electronic screen for a living. The dudes brain is pickeled, and it shows in his lame "lets play it safe" writings. That paper has a history of being pretty forgetable and is a running joke when someone picks it up for an instant and says laughing "here your turn im finished with it". A free publication? I guess. Not even the right size to fit into the bottom of the bird cage where it would at least be of some use to somebody. Should be paid to look at that weak trash. Which brings us back to Culic. Hes paid to look at it. Too bad hes too weak to make any progressive changes. Editor? More like publishers pet with a wierd haircut.

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  4. Lets hope reason in this burg prevails for once and our Mayor can follow up on his election promise of no more track bailout with Fort Erie tax money. Five Hundred Thousand is needed in many other venues .The last Council meeting held at Jimmy.s behest at the EDTC.[.closed and confidential of course ] was nothing but many hours of JT telling Councillors how great he is and selling them the Bridge to nowhere. Surely some of them other then the Go Go Girls who are Ga Ga over Thibert will see thru the Bull Shit he spews .Ask some questions Council. What has the EDTC to do for attracting business like Welland and of all places Brantford? When will he return to his real job and get away from the track position which was supposed to be temporary? What happened to the Food Processing plant he told all was coming here? Tourism promotion is a joke What is left to promote. The Parks Commission has the Fort under control so that leaves an inaccessible lighthouse.. Why will he not cooperate witth Regional Economic development office?What happened to HIS Marina development? Why will he not be bothered with small business opportunities? Did you ask him any questions Councillors? $500.000...just say NO. Your Mayor already said no more money to be drained from our slim budget to the track.

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  5. The Marina Project is basically dead in the water, while water is available, the main trunk sewer line was stopped 9 years ago that would have served that project, and let the Park Commission go forward, Our two Regional Representatives , Douglas Martin and Wayne Redekop stopped that sewer line in favor of the Frenchman's Creek sewer and water works, so millions of shovel ready dollars went into an area that was outside the urban boundry. The fact that amuses me, is that these two individuals blame the Parks for not getting on with the project, when it was them, that killed off the Marina deal. A classic case of blame the other guy, In the Town of Fort Erie with the memory of the tax payers being the equivalent of an Alzheimer patient, this works big time, .Doug Martin had got this blame game to a fine art.

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  6. I was glad to learn that the Conflict of Interest charge is at long last scheduled for court this coming March.
    Now the truth will have to be reported!

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  7. The grow op question was a case of does Fort Erie want to say no and see the project go to a number of other locations that it was said was ready to accept the operation. Welland was one name mentioned and they do have a lot of empty buildings that should see some sort of action even if it was just a call centre or even indoor flea markets. Remember council had to consider some ammendment to a set back requirement for operations of this type. With an election coming and very little to show for economic development the sitting council would have probly considered almost anything in the way of business development. Besides, in the climate of these times where a half a million dollars might be given to an hole in the ground like the mud horse track, saying OK to a self funding business into a vacant building in the downtown was a small concession by comparison,and remains so. If they start asking for a half million tax dollars to operate for a few days a year, this would probly be a totally different discussion. The track the "Grand Old Lady"?? more like the "Grand Old Money Pit" from where we stand.

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  8. The last Council was tarred with the label "Anti Business" by the two Chamber maids and their boss Dougie the cowherdsman. oft times repeating the same line via the Pravda chief Kris Dube. his kin folk. with no letters printed with contrary opinion allowed the gullible readers ate it all up. So the real story never sees the light of day .If any group is anti business it is the Chamber pot crew, who lobbied for NAFTA along with the US Chamber and sent all of our high paying jobs to Mexico. Now the hypocrites want us to spend our scarce dollars here and support their pals. Tough luck guy's .you made that bed, lie in it.!!!!

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  9. and Sandy squashed any development at the coal docks getting it rezoned from 8 storeys to parkland when he was a councillor, how is he going to explain that?
    Sandy can't get away with saying he is impartial as he did afterwards regarding the Molinaro development at Bay Beach.

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  10. Call town hall and demand the GFray be removed from the CB board? You get a slowminded deskpilot at reception who asks what department you would like to speak to. Call town hall? What department should this demand be directed to? Department of corrupt affairs? That would be one busy department. Please leave a message we will get back to you as soon as possible. Nice thought but probly need more details. Besides those 9 to 5 types already look out on the landscape of the Crystal Beach community and see a bunch of misinformed TV addicts. After all this publicity about GFray, hes probly going to get a job offer from JT in public relations for the temp workers at the horse pit.

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    1. Get this: Stephen POSsero has been appointed to the Board of the Bridgeburg BIA. He owns no business yet he's on the board. He lost his bid for mayor yet he's on the board. No good will come of this. I feel sorry for the hard-working business people of Bridgeburg who will have another four years of dissension and POSsero's self-serving BS.

      Hey Steve: how's that Kinsmen Pool coming along? Bwah! Even the voters saw through that BS. Oh, and Shorewalk? Good work there, Steve. Took a great organization and ran it into the sand. It lost all credibility when you were in charge. So, Stephen POSsero is moving on to completely destroy the business community in Bridgeburg. I hear there's a court date coming up in the New Year regarding the firing of the BIA's office manager. See you in court, Stephen.

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  11. is POSero going to be testifying in two court proceedings in the new year?
    One in the Conflict of Interest hearings where his was actually one of the four votes for Heather Salter to leave with a pay off and what's the other about?

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  12. The shorewalk gave a few brave dogwalkers signs to see through the shrubs where an overgrownpath exists to reach the high watermark on what used to be a wide expanse of public lakefront. That didnt last. How many people walk along the lakefront anyway. And if youre maid to a dogg who would want to see it looking south across the shoreline from your back windows. If shorelinesteve cavedin from the supporters of "get off my beach" hey, they grea$$ed the wheels, now get lost you lost.

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  13. Fort Erie home town of a 2 term MLA elected to be leader of the cons 3 seats away from controlling a province with a larger population than many small european countrys, then burps up some plan about hiring 1 million people and firing 100,000 public workers. Like some SNL skit. Like Fort Erie needed people to remind them of the strange characters that come out of this horse driven cul de sac. Tim, you did us proud, but not in a good way. What an example. It will never happen again. Maybe thats a good thing, although it did set a terrible example for the slolifes trying to get this tiny town back on an honest agenda.Might have been the name. Way too many drive through politicians already, with junk food ideas and no real plan for the people that would vote for you. What a shmuck.

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  14. Does anybody remember that our Doug "The Slug" Martin once ran for the MMP job at Queens Park. That might have turned out like, when Girve Fretz also a former Mayor and a Jarvis Street furniture Store operator, he was so bad as a Mayor that people voted for him, so that we could get him out of that job, he was useless as a Mayor , Dougie outdid him, in that department, They do say Girve, was quite a preacher on Sundays, .his term at Queens Park was very forgettable and I don't know of anything that he did for us, the people of Fort Erie. I liked Ray Hagarty who lived in Port Colborne , The Port was part of our Riding in those days .His endorsement of our Community Centre project and the cheque that he gave us was much appreciated in the Stevensville area..The grant was called a Wintario Grant as the early lotteries supported hockey Rinks and Community groups.I suppose that some day Sandy Annuziata will make a bid for either MPP or MP whenever the opportunity arises.so the merry go-round keeps on turning.

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  15. most political wannabes this town produces really couldn't give 2 $h!ts about the town but only what they can get out of it.

    3 of 4 exceptions to this long standing local rule of thumb were handed their walking papers recently( after being hounded to an extreme from the very moment they were elected) and their only crime was trying to do the best for the greater good.

    WELL DONE FORT STUPID!! it will be a long time before persons of good character come forward again.

    Support Mr. Lubberts who at least will try and keep a glimmer of hope going here amongst a sea of ol boys, insiders, town employees and con men lining up to pick the bones of this dead horse clean.

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  16. To clarify things for this Blog, Stephen Passero could be on the BIA for Bridgeburg , because he volunteers 4 hours a week, to oversee the Bridgeburg BIA bingo slot at the Golden Nugget , the last person to do this was Mike Anderson who worked for the Ice skating Club of Fort Erie, also volunteered with other groups, Mike's work enabled the Town two have a super skating arena for our Town, my only beef is that Doug Martin would not allow the South End Business Association run any Bingos in this Town, since then many of those buildings mysteriously burned down .Doug Martin thwarted plans for the J. L. Kraft Museum to get started , even though the Province thought it was a good idea.

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  17. Speaking of the South End, what gets funded or doesn't, does anyone know the story behind the sculpture that looks like a drawbridge/erector set?

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  18. Kudos to Councillor George McD who has finally seen the light...he finally sees that the EDTC is not doing their job. Georgie pens that he will "Knock down barriers to development by working with Town staff and new developers." Hope he remembers that he has taken on the EDTC job when it comes to JT at budget time with his hand out. Everyone knows there is a problem with getting the economic job done in this Town but no one wants to face down the fiery tongued dragon. Work hard George at something other then your rhetoric.

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  19. The same Councillor George received a personal invitation to help the Salvation Army Kettle drive. He was asked to give them a two hour donation of his time but he declined cause he was too busy. He is travelling with the big dogs now . Shame George.

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  20. George is getting coal in his stocking. So nice to see Christmas Greetings in the Times from the Mayor, Sandy and some of our Councillors. Its really appreciated and right back atcha. Have a safe Holiday Season and as for George and Kim Zanko got nothing for you except a Bah Humbug.

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  21. here is what some councillors need to remember, and a lot seem to forget...They are now the servant of the people and work for us!. They are not better than us, they are not even in some ways, equal to us, since they now have to answer to us. Their fortunes can turn on a dime, for making one bad decision. There is no place for arrogance or ego on council. None. Once a few of these newbies learn that the better. Rant over.

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    1. They must also realize that the precedent has been set. If they do not please certain people, they can be on the hook for an expensive lawsuit. Their only saving grace is that their "opposition" will probably not stoop to the levels reached by Marina Butler, Kim Zanko and a few others.

      But I do have to say that there have already been inquiries made to the Integrity Commissioner about the behaviour of certain of the newly-elected councillors.

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    2. This group will be subjected to the same level of scrutiny that the four were subjected to so they better produce. Heard that the Ombudsman is already sniffing around the smelly conduct of Butler . He might agree that you cant finance a lawsuit against a Councillor and then grab his seat on Council. Tsk Tsk

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  22. Good luck with that. Power corrupts. (Absolute power corrupts absolutely, but lets hope it never gets to that.) Council members are not going to answer in any meaningful way to people that dont support the status quo. We have seen that in the last set of "members of town council". The best way to get along is to support whatever is being put forward by the small minded and short visioned individuals that are now controlling the towns business. It doesent take much guts to stand before council and go along with whatever damage and moneywasting is being proposed by some greed driven deadweights trying to shoulder their way into the trough. We saw that during the Bay Beach waterfront park fiasco, and will likely see somthing like that again. It will take guts to stand up against such arrogance. Not the kind that comes from power corrupted one term councilors but from people that know the diference between right and wrong and propose to take and maintain a stand against such shameful actions.

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