Dear Editor,
I attended the Fire Hall Open House on Sunday, October 22. I have been a builder my entire working life and I was shocked by the extravagance of the proposed plan for the new fire hall.
People are sick and tired of the utter arrogance of the elected officials in the Town of Creston. Spend. Spend. Spend. Treating citizens as if they are stupid children who need to sit down, shut up and do as they are told.
Town and Council are forgetting they were elected. Now the citizens are unhappy. The people want a less expensive option. Instead of trying to figure out how to do that, the manipulation tactics are being hauled out, big-time.
The fire chief seems unhappy with the facilities wherever he goes, so maybe we need to look for a new fire chief. I question a leader who breeds malcontent in the people underneath him to the point they are crying “if you don’t vote for the most ridiculously expensive option for a new fire hall, you don’t support us.” I don’t like it that the firefighters show up in numbers at town hall meetings in their uniforms staring down the little old people on fixed incomes who are scared their taxes or rents will go up as a result of a 6.1 million dollar expenditure by the Town.
I am in business in this town and am well aware there will be repercussions for speaking my mind, as if it is a dictatorship.
This is after having invested millions of dollars in the area of most critical need in town, housing. My current tenants keep asking when I will build a new apartment. They were excited to help me design a building that would perfectly meet the needs of seniors. But sadly, under this Town administration, never.
Tax breaks for a favored few, tax raises for everyone else. I have shut down development, in town, of future projects. Despite putting an astonishing amount of money into the town bank account, because I own a corporation, I do not get a single vote to try and stop civic stupidity. Don’t the people who pay the bills usually get some say in how money is spent and who spends it?
The population, since I arrived here 20-plus years ago, has gone up about 0.4 per cent a year (approx. 23 people). Creston has one of the lowest per household incomes in the province, and amongst the highest property taxes. There were only two permits for new houses issued in Creston last year. And yet, despite low to no growth, taxes keep increasing, staff rosters at town hall keep becoming more bloated and expenditures show little awareness of the fiscal reality most people who live here face daily.
I am at an age where I can retire. I cannot imagine anyone coming here to start a business. I have seen, first hand, how reluctant people are to buy a house right in the town of Creston. Why would they? Just a few steps out of the town boundary, taxes are a fraction of what they are in town. But some of our elected officials already know that, because they live out of town. Maybe their tax savings allow them to make large donations to their pet projects?
I have heard three separate people say they will move out of Creston if there is one more tax hike. Steffan Klassen told my wife Sunday at the information meeting that it would be fine if people moved away, because it would save the town a million dollars a year.
Not to worry, if the Town keeps going, they should be able to get the population back under 5,000 in no time. With what they save on policing, etc., they can build (and maintain) a huge fire hall to house the 80-foot ladder truck the Town bought to be dispatched to their 70 or so call-outs. 6.1 million divided by 70. Doesn’t seem like good math to me, even if it was 700 calls. But, hey, I’m just the working guy with dirty boots and torn jeans, so what do I know?
Well, actually, what I know is that the only way the Town will listen to its citizens is if the majority of them vote no to Bill 1861, the referendum to allow them to borrow money that is tentatively scheduled for December 9.
Rob Shatzko
Lister BC
