What is with
snow removal?
To the editor,
What is with the road clearing … how do they expect businesses to operate with no parking available due to snow left on road parking and what about seniors trying to maneuver in and out of snow. It is disgusting. Stopped to assist an elderly gentleman trying to get to a crosswalk through eight inches of snow with his walker. Really? But … city hall was clear and now the Victoria Quay marina was being cleared by a city truck. The mayor is not instructing his people well and I’m sure the ambulance and fire deptartment are agreeable that this state of snow removal requires attention to the people who voted him into office. No wonder Port Alberni is losing population. Nothing is being done to promote business. There has been nothing done about curb appeal either. Come on people … stand up for what you pay your taxes for.
Peg Macmillan, Port Alberni
Questions for city cao
To the Editor,
I was reading the piece in the paper about a few things that I would like to know. First of all, why did city CAO Tim Pley ask that the city has lost a lot of it’s historical loss of growth since 1980?
Have you talked to any realtors lately verifying this statement? I have been told by a realtor that there is almost zero tolerance of rentals in the Valley. The sales and price of homes has gone up immensely in 2016 and is getting less and less homes for sale, which brings the cost of homes up. This does not sound like the city is diminishing to me.
Secondly, Pley states that there is no snow budget from last year left. What happened to it? Do you not have contingency funds left over from last year, and if not why? We had very little, to no snow fall last year and you say we are way into the budget already this year. Seems to me that there should have been lots of money from last year’s snow budget to help cover this year’s snowfall budget.
Do we not prepare our separate budget funds to increase every year and minimize the use of them in slow years to prepare for bad years? Not only snowfall budget but all budgets should be handled as such that the city has; sounds like a good plan to me? Possibly we need a little input from the citizens as to what the city is planning to do and maybe they will decide to put it off till next year, depending on the urgency of it.
The urgency of a budget is something that the city should take into consideration on all its endeavours when making out an infrastructure plan and put off unimportant projects till they can see clear to proceed with them. The city does not seem to be in that bad of shape that we need our taxes raised.
Dave Noble
Port Alberni
