Opinion

For many years I've been a member of Toastmasters International. All the literature they hand out nails public speaking as the number one fear of Joe or Jill Q. Public.

Residents of the Sunshine Coast are fortunate to live near forested mountain slopes drained by numerous creeks and streams. Many of us enjoy hiking in this forestland for exercise and an opportunity to connect with nature.

I beg to differ with the good people writing opposed to the recovery house on Pratt Road. I am a proud, single father, sober eight years. I went through a detox centre in 1997. Unfortunately, I did not have access to a recovery house.

I was under the impression that residents in a transition house were well on the way to turning their life around. It seems to me they have already come a long way up from the bottom.

When reading the concerns of local residents about the halfway house on Pratt Road, (Coast Reporter, June 5) it would be so easy to dismiss them as just another not in my back yard (NIMBY) incident. That would be wrong. The concerns were genuine.

I live only a few doors away from the new Vision Quest transition house on Pratt Road and have been a resident here for 17 years.

During my usual afternoon walk with my dog up through the trails and trees of Sprockids Park above the Gibsons bypass, I found something most unusual last week.

Thank you for Cathie Roy's editorial regarding the controversy over the transition house for recovering addicts (Coast Reporter, June 5). Addiction permeates all levels of society. I visited a loved one in a recovery house recently.

Editor: The following letter was sent to District of Sechelt mayor and council and copied to Coast Reporter. I am very concerned that the sanitary sewer user fee was increased by $30 to $321 for properties connected to sewer for the year 2009.

Editor: If you weren't at the Sunshine Coast Com-munity Orchestra spring concert at Heritage Play-house last Saturday, you missed a stellar performance from all groups - the intermediate and youth orchestras conducted by Kathleen Hovey, the Coast sym