We are now into February 2016, and there continues to be a strong interest about this waterslide development in our beloved Skaha Park.
From my own perspective, I feel uncomfortable with council’s decision to grant Trio Marine this lease.
To be fair, this nightmare was not conceived by this present council. Previous city councils actually requested proposals for upgrades to the Skaha Marina area. Trio is simply one of the companies that applied and was the one that was accepted. Also, please realize that Trio, these poor folks, were required to sign an agreement with the City of Penticton that they could not talk about this at all, until the City said they could! Interesting way of doing business, Penticton.
I do appreciate that the current city council was elected on a platform of change. My sense is that they did not get enough community consultation before awarding Trio this opportunity.
I don’t want it there. Maybe you do want it there. Maybe we are not so far apart. We both feel strongly about this and as Penticton people, we love Penticton. Candidly, if there are more people that want it than don’t, I would be OK with that. What I think would be a good outcome for Penticton council is to ask us residents how we feel about this waterslide issue. A referendum. Wouldn’t that settle it?
Now, there have been some personal character attacks on mayor and council and I am not OK with that. You can criticize their actions and behaviours, but not their worth and value as a human being.
Please remember, this city council was elected. Democracy is good, right? There are passionate people on both sides of the fence and I think that tempers are kind of running hot.
I do not feel that it is acceptable to trash a city council member or any city employee. Or, indeed, anyone. These folks are trying to do their job to the best of their ability, under the mandate that they believe that they were elected to do.
We were raised to be respectful of other people even if they didn’t agree with us.
I would ask that we bear this in mind as we continue this ongoing dialogue about Skaha Park.
Joseph McQueen
Penticton