Editor:
I couldn’t agree more with Mayor Rowe when he says (Coast Reporter, Dec. 9), “Residents should be entitled to expect that there are certain rules that are put in place that they can rely on in their choice of a place to live.”
Indeed. Gibsons residents on Martin Road, Brookside Place, Trickle Court, Pleasant Place, Tricklebrook Way, Seacot, Mountainview and Hillcrest expected they could rely on the long-established practice of paved streets having pavement. Instead, the Town has ripped up the pavement and replaced it with gravel roads which, only months later, are already full of potholes and washboard. The Town is out of money for road maintenance, the mayor explained recently.
In an unbelievable feat of newspeak, he claimed last week that “improving roadways with a chip sealing process” was one of the Town’s accomplishments this year.
While the Town is out of money for road maintenance, staff is looking at plans to reconstruct Winegarden Park, now a perfectly good park that must be destroyed to accommodate The George condos. The Town gave no estimate of how much this reconstruction will cost taxpayers. Wouldn’t it make sense that the developer should pay for work that he needs done, not the good citizens of Gibsons who are losing their paved roads?
To add insult to injury, the Gibsons Community Building Society has asked the Town to return $50,000 in fees and charges to the Gibsons Public Market, which is not a non-profit. Mayor Rowe is willing to consider this request.
Soon, Gibsons will resemble a Mexican town: expensive buildings on the waterfront and unpaved roads for the locals up the hill.
Margot Grant, Gibsons
