Dear editor,
As I drive by Lewis Park these days I can't help but notice that much of the park is submerged in water.
And I also can't help but notice that the shiny new construction work being done at taxpayers' expense on the back of the building is about 15 to 20 feet from the edge of the lake, sitting on a slightly raised mound of earth.
To my knowledge, this is known in legal jargon as "building on a floodplain."
Am I mistaken, or is this the very same municipality that spent years harrassing Maple Pool and threatening court action for its site being on a floodplain? Yes folks, the self-same municipality which has embraced this fantastically expensive addition to the Lewis Centre.
The irony is hard to bear.
Where is Sandy Gray when you need him? Asleep at his desk?
Why is he not, on our behalf, suing the council that approved this? Or more importantly, why was this building project ever approved by the regional district in the first place?
Taxpayers were going to have to pay extravagantly for the court action against Maple Pool, and are also paying extravagantly for the new work at Lewis Centre, built on a floodplain that laps at its feet regularly every year.
And no doubt we'll be paying for the cleanup of an occasionally water-damaged new building. Is it any wonder we have so little faith and trust in our politicians.
S. Joy,
Merville