At the July 18 Parksville city council meeting, the residents of Trill, Creekside and Maple Crescent were bombarded with vague costs, threats of delays and scare tactics involving the fibre-optic line if the south side of the right-of-way was costed out.
It’s my opinion that this is a result of city staff not using common sense and doing a proper costing of both sides of the right-of-way in the first place.
The mayor talks about the Sept. 30, 2018 deadline by Island Health and yet the city’s consultant says it will take four months to finish the transmission line. So why not take a month, cost the south side and “lo and behold” save some money for the taxpayers?
The south side is flat (an old logging road), scrub trees, natural drainage swales. The north side requires cutting 2,000-3,000 mature fir trees, destroying our multiple drainage systems, adding retaining walls, hundreds of truckloads of fill as they cut into a three-meter downslope.
The city promises to install a six-inch French drain to handle groundwater run-off for 44 homes and send most of it to Corfield Street. This is all to start in the fall and winter. Does that make sense to you?
We’ve got the experts that refute their points but the mayor, two councillors and city staff still won’t listen.
Thanks to Coun. Leanne Salter for standing up for her constituents and councillors Teresa Patterson and Kirk Oates for their support.
Lynne DonaldsonParksville