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Shelburne to reimburse residents for street name change expenses

January 16, 2017   ·   0 Comments

By Peter Richardson

The Town has decided to reimburse residents for any expense incurred in address changes when they correct a misspelt street name intended to honour a storied local war veteran.

On Monday, Council addressed the ongoing issue of misspelt signage for a street in a new subdivision meant to honour one of the town’s decorated WWI and WWII veterans, Brigadier Elgin McKinnon Wansbrough.

The street sign had been mistakenly named Wansburgh Way, rather than Wansbrough Way. This matter was of noted concern to the surviving family members and to others in Shelburne, and Council was asked to address the matter.

After much consultation with all of the multitude of agencies and Government agencies involved, CAO John Telfer reported that a solution had been found to accommodate the correction.

Canada Post and other Government offices have agreed to accommodating the change via a simple By-law adoption and all other agencies involved, such as Service Canada and Service Ontario, would treat it as a simple address change.

Affected residents, would be required to request an address change for things such as drivers licences, passports, and utility bills.

Council also agreed to reimburse residents for any expenses incurred by this change, such as changing signage on their homes or other related issues.

Mr. Telfer stated that the required By-law would be prepared for the next meeting of Council.

Members of the family, who were present for Monday’s meeting, expressed their pleasure with the decision.

Contrary to appearances, this issue had involved a considerable expenditure of time and effort by the CAO and his staff and involved a great deal more than simply changing a name on a sign.

Council noted this fact and expressed the desire to see the new signage installed as soon as possible, now that the issue had been solved, to everyone’s satisfaction.

In last week’s issue of the Shelburne Free Press, a member of the Wasbrough family expressed his frustration at the seeming lack of action in a letter to the editor.

“The CAO has come up with a slew of problems, like the emergency responders wouldn’t know where to go if the spelling changed, to the cost to the municipality would be exorbitant, reports must be received from the Town Planner and the Ministry of Municipal Affairs,” wrote Gordon B. Wansbrough. “Is it usual that the Town Planner and the Ministry of Municipal Affairs be consulted so they can comment on every spelling mistake made by the administration? What is going on? It is a spelling mistake, people!

“Someone has decided to complicate the matter even more by adding ‘General’ to the sign. In the Canadian Army, at that time, he was called a ‘Brigadier,’ not a ‘Brigadier General’ and that was never the issue in the first place. ‘Wansbrough Way’ would be just fine with the Shelburne dentist and hero buried in Orangeville and that is good enough for the family.”

         

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