The Our Town - Clarenville Blog by Paul Tilley

I see Councillors are getting an earful on the “old” mall parking lot. (see The Packet "Pot Holes Persist Feb 28/2013  )  The Town and the Mall owners have been at loggerheads for what seems like forever pointing fingers of blame at one another as absolutely nothing gets done to clean up what has become a decrepit part of Clarenville.    From the mall owner's/tenant's point of view, the Town owns the lot and IT is clearly the one responsible for the ongoing maintenance of the lot.  (This is thanks to an omission in the original 1960’s era development agreement that neglected to pass the ownership of the lot to the mall owners within a specified length of time)   From the Town’s point of view, it wants to be rid of the lot and the associated liability.  And their stand has a lot of merit from a taxpayer's point of view.  As long as the Town is forced to take care of the lot the owners & tenants are receiving an effective subsidy on the backs of taxpay