To the Editor,
By the time my wife left for her teaching position Wednesday morning, the road conditions were extremely bad.
She has winter tires on her vehicle and although her commute was more than double and tense, she did arrive safely.
The first incline she came to, the vehicle ahead could not make it up. In conditions like these we often hear the police say that unless you really have to drive, stay at home.
I have to wonder at the wisdom of Dave Hutchinson, our new district superintendent’s decision to keep the schools open. It was not until nearly 7 a.m. that the radio station announced the schools would be open. By that time, it was blizzard conditions outside.
Residents of this area know that we do not get the dry snow Saskatchewan receives. Our snow is often wet and can be treacherous to drive in. At my wife’s school, several teachers and teachers aides, and nearly half the students, did not get to school.
The City of Nanaimo does not clear sidewalks, and although it has a bylaw that requires homeowners to do so, it does not enforce the bylaw or advertise it even exists.
Hutchinson needs to consider those facts. Children who walk to school will often need to walk down the side of the road because the sidewalks are piled high with snow.
Many parents will drive their children to school, and not all will have winter tires on their vehicles and may be relying on worn, all-season tires.
Will it take a death of one of our students before he wakes up to thefact he is not living in Saskatchewan anymore.
Richard C. Parsley
Nanaimo
