Gas companies to wake up
Fifteen gas stations in the Comox/Courtenay area have been 15 to 21 cents per litre lower than stations in Powell River for 12 months [“Gas grinch stealing Christmas,” December 19, 2012].
Fuel people will talk about the rack price being set by the major oil companies. To the average consumer this does not ring true. It is a known fact the delivery price for fuel to Powell River is 2 cents per litre or less. Why does our City of Powell River Mayor and Council not raise this issue on a consistent basis? People need a break in this community. I suggest we quit buying fuel at the non-local providers until they get the message and bring the price of fuel in line.
I emphasise the non-local suppliers because they are the companies that set the fuel prices for the Powell River area.
Verne Kinley Sr.
Duncan Street
Fiction or non-fiction
I write in response to Powell River Public LIbrary board trustee Linda Rosen’s viewpoint “Generating income,” January 8.
While the old adage, “you should not believe everything you read,” is still relevant in today’s digital world, more important than the validity of the statement, is the applicability.
Having said that, let’s test the library board’s theory that for every $1 spent the local economy benefits by at least $2.
The current library budget is over $1 million, added to that, the fact that every elementary school, every high school and the local university campus in Powell River has its own library.
The annual sum total of all library costs in Powell River is approximately $1.5 million per year. Using the board’s two for one theory, they would expect to generate $3 million in additional economic benefit or in job terms, create an additional 75 new jobs per year. In sales terms, each visit to the library, a member would have to spend $30 on discretionary items for each visit. Now add on the $9.5 million for the new library and you have to create 475 new jobs and/or generate discretionary sales of $190 per library visit.
The library will not generate positive income, neither will moving the library location to the other end of the Marine Avenue business area, change the overall downtown business environment.
Paul McMahon
Invermere Court
Ferry tales
How sad it is that in the not too distant past, for the price of a new library, Powell River could/should have bought one, two or three Fast Cat Ferries and shown BC Ferries a tale or two. But no.
What with the high regard and automatic deafness BC Ferries and the provincial government have shown Powell River, it must be time to look on the Internet for our own ferries, or to an offshore company to do the Powell River-Comox and Powell River-Texada Island ferry runs. If BC Ferries is no longer a government business, then the monopoly should be finished [“Ferry cuts galvanize community,” December 3, 2013].
I find it interesting that Powell River is getting a fancy new ramp system, for a very reduced ferry service. Are there plans in the closet we don’t know about?
The same thing happened to Ocean Falls just before its paper mill was forced to close down.
Is some other company trying to shut down the Powell River mill by destroying the town? Or is the idea of an independent—no road connection—city an affront to Victoria? Are we “one ferry too far?” Did someone say “city state?”
About the two per cent hotel room tax, who is going to pay it? The people who can’t afford to come here, or the people who come here, but can’t afford hotels after paying the ferry fares?
Think big, people, or watch your town die. Remember, Powell Riverites seem to be the only people who care about Powell River.
Most towns would be more than happy to have the old arena site, the beach, the band shell and the campground in their front yards and would be painting the rocks rather than planning to build buildings. A panorama picture of the above should be the signature description of Powell River on all paper/Internet proceedings. Don’t forget the calenders. Tourist bureau, go, go, go. Once that land is gone: it is gone. And so are the potentials.
Let’s bring people and events here on our own ferries.
Bill Ireland
Joyce Avenue
