Just how desperate is the city for tax dollars that they would even consider a prison in or near Penticton?
Do they even consider where the prisoners will live when they get out?
I have friends in Prince Albert, Sask. where there are three prisons. Prisoners are released at the gate, not sent back to where they come from, and a percentage stay where they are released.
Is tax dollars/city revenue more important than the safety of its citizens?
Decisions by mayors and city planners have been disastrous to the city the last few years. I felt sorry for the lady who wrote in wondering why the city has no interest in preserving the Sicamous. City Hall has no interest in its heritage, only the greed for tax dollars. Gone (and on its way out) is everything that made Penticton the paradise of Western Canada — farewell to the campgrounds, RV parks, 90 per cent of the wetlands, water parks, soccer fields and playgrounds. Destroyed is the Okanagan lakefront with the monster highrises.
What happened to height limits for apartments?
I believe the prison discussion should first start with a non-confidence vote of the mayor and the city council. I will fight the city, with lawsuits if necessary, to stop this absurd bad idea. I have a four-year-old girl who does not need more criminals in this city.
With a prison in Penticton or area, it is the residents who will become the prisoners of our own homes. Time for a new mayor.
Clifford (John) Martin
Penticton
Preventative action needed
An Osoyoos couple told police they woke up in the early hours of Jan. 5 to find a man inside their house. The masked intruder, armed with what looked like an assault rifle, demanded money, was given a small quantity of cash and left the house.
The offender was known by police. When I see this statement I always wonder, “What is known?”
I witnessed a local 34-year-old man’s court appearance in September 2010. He was known by police, with 99 police calls in one year.
Why don’t laws reflect preventative action? Isn’t it more cost effect to prevent crime?
When is it time to say, “What we are doing isn’t getting us anywhere and other action needs to occur.”
Right now there is a huge debate in regards to preventative action towards mental health and addictions cases before harm is caused.
Most petty crimes are related to addiction, therefore are mental health issues. In the case of the 34-year-old man, alcohol addiction was related to all his offences, but did a judge issue rehab? No. Did a judge call for a psychological evaluation in relationship to addictions? No.
This 34-year-old man was released from jail in November and in December was placed back in jail.
Did we make any progress? Did we save taxpayers dollars?
Carrie-Ann dambrowitz
Osoyoos
Recycling concerns
As we are sitting at the breakfast table reading the Penticton Western newspaper about Otto Sturhahn’s response to the previous recycling plan, we couldn’t help but chuckle at the humour of the writing. But on the flipside, we do fully agree with what Otto is saying.
In addition to his response, we would like to mention another concern. We consider ourselves middle class in this beautiful City of Penticton, have worked most of our lives for our house and home, plus have plenty of working years ahead of us being at age 50. But really, where are we supposed to get all the room to store the glass that might no longer be accepted in the blue bin that will only be picked up every second week?
To date, we have good heartedly recycled everything necessary for the future environment and properly recycled it. This task takes up a lot of space and time for us. Now we are supposed to find extra room and time to store glass, not to mention the extra expense to dispose of it.
Are we supposed to take it to the bottle depot in our recycle bags and get no deposit back for the glass? If we do get a deposit, that means we pay a deposit in the store. If you choose to drink beverages with certain recycled containers, it’s necessary to go to the bottle depot to get a deposit back, that’s a choice. Having to go because you bought a jar of pickles just doesn’t seem right.
Wishing you a swell day.
Lonnie Lisitza
Penticton
Focus on the future
In response to John Wylie’s letter “The Good Old Days.”
How accurate is this. I remember being occasionally able to afford a six-inch chocolate chip cookie that was sold at recess and lunch for 25 cents. Gas was 54 cents a litre and that was expensive. I hiked up mountainsides with only my sisters and a piece of baler twine to mark our assent.
We had whole cow’s milk, but you had to milk the cow first. I found out geese eggs were the size of four chicken eggs and they made the batter yellow. There were no streetlights, only the stars and the moon.
We had black-and-white television, stew made from scratch, freshly baked gingerbread cookies and homemade gifts. We swam in the meandering creek that went through our father’s farm. We scaled towering weeping willows and enormous bale stacks, but only after we finished our chores. Mother Nature was our home; the house was for eating and sleeping in. I have had freedom, failure, success and responsibility. And I’m 27 years old.
So congratulations to all those born in the 1970s, ‘80s, ‘90s and ‘00s. You have survived. That itself is an amazing feat in a world over-populated, over-polluted and over monitored by those born in the 1930s, ‘40s, ‘50s and ‘60s.
You have overcome AIDS, 999 channels on Sky, the Internet, latch-key kid syndrome, poisoned creeks and polluted air, concrete jungles, genetically modified food and drink, obesity, margarine, anti-bacterial everything, cell phones, consumerism, and all the pervading loneliness our over-connected world provides.
You see, it’s all not bravery to grow up in an ideal life. It’s a privilege. So instead of bragging about what we had, let’s all try to make a future better than what we have.
Monica Hoffman
Penticton
Affordable housing over prison
If the city has sufficient land for a prison to be built here in Penticton, I can think of a far better use for it. Penticton, and the entire province, are in serious need of more affordable housing.
To use this land to build low-cost housing would not only be cheaper, but also far more valuable than building and maintaining another prison.
Florence Barton
chairman, Board of Directors
Habitat for Humanity South Okanagan
Test a valuable tool
This is an open letter to parents of grades 4 and 7 students:
The ability to read, write and solve math problems are vital skills every child needs in life. Developed by B.C. teachers and administered each winter to B.C. students, the Foundation Skills Assessments (FSA) are a set of reading, writing and numeracy tests that give you, as parents, important information about your child.
These tests show where children excel and where they struggle. For example, FSA reading scores are a reliable predictor of whether your child will graduate from school on time. It allows you to work together with your child’s teacher to identify problems and take action early on, so that your child will be successful later on in their schooling.
Without strong foundation skills, students entering their high-school years can become disengaged from their education. We want every student to be able to fully pursue their passion in education and become lifelong learners.
The tests also allow your child’s teacher to see how students in their classroom compare to others across the province. This important data is used by teachers and principals to identify problems, propose solutions and interventions, and share best practices.
As a parent, you have the right to know how your child is performing. The FSA program, which takes less than 10 hours of your child’s time between kindergarten and Grade 8, is an important building block for your child’s future success.
Contrary to misinformation, the FSA is not optional — if you have any questions, please contact your child’s principal. Also, a pamphlet on FSA is available online at: www.gov.bc.ca/bced/.
Please ensure your child writes this year’s FSA. Checking your child’s learning abilities in these early years is just like having regular medical check-ups. The results may be critical to ensuring their success in high school and beyond.
Margaret MacDiarmid
Minister of Education
Cancer has numerous causes
I find it fascinating how people are ignorant of basic facts regarding cancer.
I had a person tell me that smoking was the biggest cause. Informing her that in this modern world there was many things that cause cancer: asbestos from brake linings, everyone riding any vehicle, the fine dust particles are dispersed into the air, oil and rubber, freon from older vehicles. Do most people dismiss the toxins from vehicles as non existent, only concerned with what comes from the exhaust?
Remember, like smokers leaving toxins, we all do the same but in a different way, and can excuse it as a necessary evil. Not quite. Drive less, drive a smaller vehicle, plan trips, use public transport. Global warming humbug.
Ron Holmes
Penticton