Editor:
Re: Marine Park latest Slack Point salvation? Nov. 8
Finally, more voices of reason. Forget trying to get boutique hotels and upscale coffee shops built. It is an environmental nightmare for any developer to undertake to clean up, mitigate and properly develop this land.
There are at least seven or eight vessels either aground or sunk in the harbour. We can’t dredge to improve the anchoring grounds due to environmental concerns, but we can tolerate the unbelievably irresponsible contamination of abandoned or neglected vessels on an ongoing basis?
There has to be some way to get these folks to be responsible for the carnage they create.
It definitely will be left to the taxpayers to deal with this ongoing shame-fest. Victoria and Ottawa are going to have to step up and provide some kind of support to get these rotted and dangerous vessels off our beaches and out of the water. Maybe we should just sink about 30 wooden-hulled vessels stripped of contaminants throughout Dog Patch to eliminate the possibility of anchor outs there. They could become reefs for the otters and fishes and displace the revolting mess which resides there now.
What we need is an attractive semi-open space along the water that connects with Transfer Beach and ties in with the near shore trail system and the R.V. park concept at Transfer Beach. If we need to go the route of expropriation and pay a fair market value for part of it, so be it. It’s the only thing that makes sense.
Robert James
Ladysmith
