Thursday, December 21, 2006




Folks, I fear that I am soon going to lose my mind completely. I finally received the official letter from the town office. It reads:

"This letter is to inform you that the property you purchased at 517
Main Street, (Lot 9, Block 04, Plan G4013) is 25' x 132'. Therefore it
can never be subdivided. This can only be sold as a whole property as
per resolution #424/06 passed at the December 18th council meeting.

This property is zoned as commercial so we do not have any problem
with you opening The All Citizens Shop. We wish you luck in your
future endeavors."

Nice letter right?

Yes but before I had a chance to forward it to the health inspector I received an email from her stating that it doesn't matter what the town says. We are going to be forced to build a new washroom due to building codes. Building codes? But the BUILDING has a washroom! It's right next door to the only spot where a new washroom would go if we had scads of money to blow, which we don't. We have negative money. We have bills and loans and I have no job since the job I am trying very hard to create for myself is being blocked at every turn. We have an espresso machine on the way, one that we are now not allowed to use! The only reason we ordered said espresso machine is because when I first called the health inspector and asked if we would need a washroom in the store she said NO. I was clearly told that as long as we have only one table for customer seating we need no customer washroom. Now I’m being told that when I go to work in the front room of my home I am not allowed to use the washroom directly adjacent to my work space, instead I have to build a whole second washroom right next door! I apologize if I am repeating myself; my mind is fragile. I am going to lie down now and weep.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sorry to hear that you are still experiencing problems with the additional washroom request.

What about taking the situation to a local newspaper? Exposing things in a public format might generate some kind of advice or assistance from locals and get people taking.

Have you seen the movie "Chocolat" with Juliet Binoche?
If you haven't I suggest that you do see it. It's a wonderful movie about chocolate and people and relationships.

If anything, you might be able to get some 'unconventional ideas' from the movie on how to deal with the "officials" who are giving you a hard time :)

Unknown said...

Joanne- I had a very discouraging conversation today with the health inspector's supervisor in Saskatoon. Several people have told me to contact the media. I've also been told to contact my MLA. I'm going to do both!