Train and pony rides
As someone who has spent every summer weekend for the past 19 years at the Open Air Farmers’ Market in Powell River, offering pony rides to happy children, I felt that I must comment on your recent article, “Train Adds to Market’s Offerings” [April 24].
The proposed increased use of the train and the expansion through the park of railway tracks to accommodate increased train use, has meant that my ponies and I are no longer able to be at the farmers’ market. Trains and ponies are not a good combination, and the safety of the children and my ponies is a top priority for me. Because my little mare Patsy Kline was very frightened by the train, I made the decision that I must pull out of the market, and did so last year.
Operating pony rides was a great source of happiness for both myself and the many, many children who had pony rides, and it was heartbreaking for me to make the decision that it was no longer safe to offer them.
More than that, however, the Paradise Valley Fairgrounds is an agricultural venue, as well as equestrian. Where, exactly, do noisy miniature trains fit into this picture? It is a sad loss for Powell River to exchange living creatures like ponies for a noisy train.
Manon Zago
Myrtle Avenue
Okeover forest threat
Residents in the Okeover Inlet area have become aware that Island Timberlands (IT) plans to log an area immediately adjacent to Crowther Road [“Logging plans alarm residents,” May 1]. This road is a public, unpaved, narrow, single road serving homes and businesses in the area.
Company surveyors have flagged the cutblock boundaries and spur roads which will be used for removing the logs out onto Crowther. This road is not wide enough to allow logging trucks and passenger vehicles to pass, in addition to having poor sight lines. This creates a major safety hazard to residents in the area.
The area to be logged includes slopes with gradients in excess of 75 per cent. This will allow water runoff to overload ditching and adversely affect aquatic habitat.
I was employed by Kootenay Environmental Services as an independent environmental monitor on the Plutonic Power Corporation Toba-Montrose hydro project from 2008 to 2010. I monitored the construction of 100 kilometres of transmission line encompassing more than 500 structures over difficult terrain. That project had 72 requirements in the environmental impact management plan which I had to ensure were met. My reports were circulated to regulatory agencies. I had proper site orientation and suitable VHF radios to communicate with logging trucks and other road users.
As IT owns the land, it is exempt from any regulations. This land is managed under the BC Private Managed Forest Lands Act which specifically exempts registered landowners from any local government’s or residents’ concerns. This means IT is excused from all requirements that a company such as Plutonic (now Alterra Power Corporation) had to respect. This is a concern to those who live in the area.
A meeting of local residents with Wayne French from IT provided little information with promises of future communications, none of which have been honoured. None of the residents’ concerns have been addressed.
This constitutes a major health, environmental and safety concern for not only residents, but any innocent individual who ventures into the area. The environmental implications, including slope instability, wildlife habitat loss and danger of accident with overuse of a poorly constructed road, is also of public concern.
Jim McCaul
Mariners Way
President had an impact
I wish Kevin Clarke well in the wake of his announcement of his resignation, effective June 30 [“Catalyst president resigns,” April 24]. He provided ready access to me as Powell River’s member of Parliament in matters that related to Catalyst Paper Corporation and the community. It was under his leadership that Catalyst created an excellent community celebration of the Powell River mill’s centennial anniversary, a celebration which highlighted the central role played by the mill in Powell River’s development. He recognized the unique collaboration between the community, management, unions, local government, provincial and federal government and helped fight for the continuation of jobs in Powell River that related to the mill.
For the sake of the workers who hold those jobs so dearly, I hope that Clarke’s successor will muster the same commitment to Powell River.
John Weston, MP
West Vancouver–Sunshine Coast–Sea to Sky Country
