Every time Mayor Paul Ives comes up with a green idea our green bored councillors follow suit and implement the same green plan. Whether it is bicycle lanes, or recycled kitchen waste Comox jumps on the new band wagon and reaches into the taxpayers’ pockets. Council approved a motion for organic waste pickup to begin in June 2013 to be mingled with yard waste so no bin cost to Comox but as for the taxpayer we are required to have a bin with a lid if we mingle yard waste and kitchen waste. If we already pay for yard waste pickup why are we taxed again for kitchen waste in the same bin? This little project will last about a year, council says. So June, July, August and even a hot Sept we have kitchen waste waiting to be picked up once a week. Oh we are supposed to put the refuse in our freezer until garbage day or in a bin outside so the smell won’t get to us. This is working so well in Van. They are overrun with vermin, birds, maggots and smell. Sorry not everyone is disposing properly, but then again that’s humans for you. There are a lot of elderly people in Comox, hence a bedroom community, in which we have our own gardens and compost bins. Not much to pick up here. Council should tone down its desire to leave a legacy of greatness from the pockets of the taxpayer. I trust we won’t be getting any rainbow crosswalks in the near future. The green painted bike lanes are enough. If council is bored with not doing anything you can always play golf on the town’s golf course, which gets a tax exemption.
The Bowser Seniors’ Housing Society would like to thank everyone who assisted with and attended their recent Johnny Vallis fundraiser at the Lighthouse Community Hall. It takes many people and a great community to make these events happen. From the Board, to volunteers, to sponsors like the Comox Valley Record, to those donating auction items and prizes, and finally our audience who came from near and far; the many little pieces all made for a wonderful evening. Our Fundraising Campaign, to create additional Senior’s Housing in the area is off and running! We have a long way to go but thank you for such a great start!
This is the first time that I have ever replied to any article in a newspaper but when I read a statement from a person who has a political agenda and his statements are totally wrong I wonder, what is the calibre of their morals. In response to Erik Eriksson’s statement that Fitzgerald has “neither cyclists to be protected nor traffic to protect them from” I wonder if he only drives around town between the hours of 1 and 3 am. I live in the 1900 hundred block of Fitzgerald and we do have some special events like the “fitz 500.” This is a traffic event that is held 6 days a week starting around 7am and kinda trickles off around 7 pm but then there is the individual high speed training runs throughout the evenings. The fitz 500 is a complete high speed heavy traffic event, including daredevil real cyclists wearing helmets and bright green clothing, other cyclists going the wrong way or weaving in and out of traffic plus a full compliment of skateboarders. The semi-truck division is getting to be very popular along with other commercial traffic. A new game now that we have a controlled crosswalk at 19th, is let’s see how fast we can go through it and that’s not the traffic but the poor person trying to us it. You kinda get an unwelcome feeling when you slow down to turn into your driveway and you get either the horn or the finger just because your driveway is not long enough to stop on at their speed. Another rule is that you must have a vehicle that can travel at the unposted speed of 60 to 100 or it’s the horn or finger at the posted 50. Traffic on Fitzgerald is extremely heavy and for a residential street it is unwelcome the way it is. And on another issue there is no money for sidewalks on the south end of Fitzgerald, and has been that way for a long time BUT we can spend money to see if we need a wooden bridge. Let’s just have the people that walk in that area run the fitz 500 and it will give them good character for their bravery. So before you comment about where other people live be sure your facts are correct. I have a suggestion from Herbert Spencer, “There is a principal which is a bar against all information, which is proof against all arguments and which cannot fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance, that principal is contempt prior to investigation. Thank you.
Already twenty years ago in Germany, you could leave all your packaging materials in the shop where you bought your merchandise. I do believe that stores have some responsibility to take back the packaging that protects the goods they sell. Whether or not the consumer has to pay a levy, the issue is that the focus needs to shift towards viewing recyclable materials as a commodity and to see this as a great forward thinking opportunity to create new and sustainable jobs. Starting at the government level, down to the manufacturers and consumers we need to brainstorm how to truly utilize all those potentially valuable materials by increasing our efficiency, using already existing infrastructure and transportation grids and related logistics, to bring recyclables to processing locations. Could we not decrease landfill waste and create many more long-term, sustainable jobs by rethinking this issue in a different way? All those tractor trailers running on empty after their deliveries could transport some recyclables. Why not have the B.C. government give incentives for conversions of existing empty commercial buildings or towards construction of glass-crushing locations in multiple sites throughout B.C.? We need a long-term plan for all recyclables as well as sustainable jobs in this sector, which will never run out of materials and the support of our governments is crucial at every step. With all the bad rap in the media that Canada is getting for dirty tar sands, high carbon emissions, clear cutting, over fishing, floating litter in the ocean etc. , we need to get this right because we clearly have a passion for recycling and reusing, but at the same time we need to know that we are actually contributing to a great cause. Recycling should be made available to every citizen, including people who don’t have cars, apartment tenants, the elderly and people living in remote areas that rely on the delivery of their provisions. Kudos to the people who supplement their income by collecting bottles that would otherwise go to landfills. Everything can be an opportunity if we shift our thinking.
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