To the editor:
After reading Don Johnson’s Dec. 17 letter: Parking Lot Trap Next to Kelowna General Hospital, I thought I should share my open letter to Mayor Gray and council about my poor experience picking up visitors at the airport:
Open letter to Kelowna Mayor Gray and councillors:
I would like to file a complaint with the way I was recently treated at the Kelowna airport.
I am not a regular user of the airport and when I arrived to pickup our son, daughter-in-law and 10-week-old grandson from Winnipeg, I was not sure where to park, but I saw a sign that said: No Parking, Loading & Unloading.
That seemed to meet my needs.
I left the car for under five minutes to run in and greet our visitors and arrange to pick them up at the arrivals door.
As I returned to my vehicle I saw a meter woman leaving a ticket on my windshield. When I enquired why she would ticket me she very politely explained that the (dimly lit) sign also said no unattended vehicles.
I admit I did not fully understand the signage as I concentrated on the loading word and never thought a couple minutes would be considered ‘unattended’ or ‘parking.’
As she departed she did a little dance step and gleefully thanked me.
When I saw the $30 fine I was flabbergasted and realized that her glee was over my misfortune.
Is a $30 fine justified for leaving my vehicle in a safe loading location for under five minutes to meet my visitors?
Are your contractors receiving personal payment to enforce this unreasonable punishment?
Are your contractors trained to add the insult of laughing at my misfortune to further punish my despicable behaviour of breaking one of your by-laws?
I am no longer proud of the Kelowna airport facility and feel very disappointed in a council that would encourage or allow their contractors to behave in this manner.
Al Hamilton,
Kelowna
