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Letters: The parks need you

Our parks must be protected by a mandatory vote/referendum on any changes to public park lands
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Penticton Western News letters to the editor.

The parks need you

For $200,000 the taxpayers got an inventory of Pentictons’ parks, beaches and recreation facilities.

What they also got, is a document that applies the same rules to all vendors. That means businesses like Trio Marine, with long-term leases, with property, will be playing by the same rules as the seasonal, pop up vendor, selling sunglasses.

Who or what does that protect? Not the parks, not the small vendor but the big businesses that use our parks for profit.

This city does not have a policy for commercial uses in parks. What else is it lacking?

This master plan claims, without proof, that 5,000 people participated in this survey. If there was actually half that number I’d be surprised, but they claim 90 per cent, of whatever number, were satisfied with beaches, with 60 per cent visiting the beach three times per week. The beaches they visited are “as is” beaches, before the 2015 Trio deal and the slow erosion of parkland.Lakawana Park is a good example of park erosion.

Penticton Citizens First (PCF) and Save Skaha Park Society (SSPS) are on the same page with their assessment of the Parks Master Plan. It will not serve the needs of the public in the future. In my view, it will serve the needs of the politicians.

Our parks must be protected by a mandatory vote/referendum on any changes to public park lands. That has got to be the bottom line.

Get involved by contacting SSPS at saveskaha@gmail.com or PCF at pentictoncares@gmail.com

Lynn Crassweller

Penticton