It is amazing what you miss when you take a month's vacation away from home.

I left on March 3rd and returned home April 4th and to my horror find the situation at Meaford Council is in a worse mess now than when I left...if that is possible!

Gone are Councilor Gunter Neumann and Mayor Wally Reif. As far as Mr. Neumann is concerned, his frustration at how things were going is understandable. But to leave at this particular time with the knowledge Mr. Neumann has was ill-conceived.

On the other hand, the resignation of Mr. Reif is a good thing for the Municipality; the misdirection and mistakes that were made under his tenure were a disgrace and inexcusable. There are others on this council that should consider resigning as well.

The reason I am writing this letter to the editor is because from what I hear our taxes are going up some 30 per cent. Why? Because of all the mistakes that were made under this council, but the current council and the members who resigned are definitely not totally responsible for this mess.

Half or more of this mess lies on the ratepayers groups that fought so hard to put certain people of their liking on council that would do what they wanted once they were elected. They then told us who not to vote for by placing mail advertisements in our mailboxes at election time. The people that are responsible for this are Mr. Graham Kirkland and his ratepayers group.

Mr. Bert Chalmers has a responsibility in this as well. Both Mr. Kirkland and Mr. Chalmers have repeatedly stated in the news media how good they were in business and their qualifications for making such statements.

Anyone who would make such claims in print that they know what is best for us and to vote the way they told us to vote, then have a mess like this to deal with - not to mention the increase in taxes we are going to endure -  is totally irresponsible and reckless.

Now, Mr. Kirkland and Mr. Chalmers, it is your turn to stand up to the plate and be counted. You have contributed to this mess and with all your knowledge and ability, it is time to put forward your resumes for the position of CAO for the Municipality of Meaford. To have this knowledge between the two of you, you'll be able to clean this mess up once and for all, although I would like to suggest you do this job for free. I resist the urge to push.

I have said that ratepayers groups are good for council; however, what we saw from Mr. Kirkland's group was to say the least excessive. The problem now is this group is not responsible to anybody but themselves: there is no government control over these types of groups and now we see the horrific results that its members and the members of council supported.

To go on just a little further, there are still mistakes being made as I see it. They have appointed Mr. Shortt to fill Mr. Neumann's position. If this is the case, then they should have filled the mayor's position with Mr. Reid. If not, then an election should be called.

Somehow I think my letter will go unheeded as I don't think anyone or anything is in control. Better still, Mr. Murdoch, please send in the troops and get this craziness stopped once and for all.