Ugh. Nevermind what I said earlier. Up93.1 is reporting (not on their website yet) that the Council has decided to go ahead with the lease.
Randy Dickenson was apparently the only one who voted FOR reversing the lease.
Fox's confirmation
Quote:
Fredericton will spend $150,000 to lease the former iRock Nightclub for five months after all.
Last Monday, council voted to lease the former bar until its exotic entertainment licence expires to prevent organized crime groups from acquiring the building.
But on Friday, Mayor Brad Woodside tweeted that the city no longer had a need to lease the building.
A special council meeting was held Tuesday to rescind the motion to lease the building.
At the meeting, Woodside said Public Safety Minister Stephen Horsman told council in a letter that he would "take into consideration" the city's concerns if someone applied to the province for an exotic entertainment licence at the location.
The city's legal council said they were not aware of any provisions that would allow the minister to deny a duly qualified application, nor did they have any guarantees that some action would not take place in the future against the city if they decided not to go ahead with the lease.
Some councillors said they feel the costs of leasing the building outweight the potential costs that could arise with organized crime in the area.
In the end, council voted against the motion to rescind the resolution to lease the property, meaning the city will go ahead with the lease.
Woodside and all of the councillors left the council chambers immediately following the meeting.
After the meeting, Bruce McCormack of Downtown Fredericton Inc. says the city made the right choice to lease the property.
McCormack says his organization has heard from a number of business owners who were concerned about what could have happened if the property fell into the hands of an organized crime group.
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So if I read that right, the Province decides on the licenses, and would take the city's feelings into consideration for any new licenses.
I fail to see how 5 months will make much difference. If it was acceptable before, then requesting a new one or an extension should effectively be the same (with probably a bit more paperwork I suppose). Reality is there is likely a lot more paperwork, but ugh... *sigh*