Red alert!
I would like to point out this mayor and council’s sole interest is to commercialize our parks, the crown jewels, and a major reason why tourists come to this town.
We have totally buried Queen’s Park under concrete. It used to have soccer fields, baseball fields, Memorial Arena, the rodeo grounds and the circus. That’s all gone with the exception of Memorial Arena and the baseball field. LocoLanding and Lakawanna East should be under zoning of amusement parks.
I would like to reflect on the mayor’s comment of a waterslide. His comment was the waterslide wasn’t a bad idea but it was the communication that was the problem.
The problem was, Mr. Mayor, you were eating up approximately 27 per cent of Skaha Lake Park, paid for by the taxpayers for their enjoyment and not to give Trio a 40-year lease. The Parks Master Plan Committee is overseen by you, a councillor plus two committee members employed by the city. Being present at the committee’s last meeting as an observer, the committee had not determined what a park is and when it was explained to them in detail by a committee member most members didn’t seem to understand.
How can you move forward or even give a presentation to the public without understanding the definition of a park?
Commercial was not a part of the definition. In the committee’s mandate, they have a section to justify commercial in parks. Their conclusions and opinions cannot be presented to the public until they have an understanding of what they are talking about.
The new agreement with Trio still leaves these lands of the original agreement vulnerable. The marina is commercial, we recognize that, and it is causing irritation with all of us trying to understand the agreements.
Why don’t we subdivide the marina out of the park without abusing Skaha Lake Park?
Peter Osborne
Penticton