Dear editor,
Re: Courtenay council unanimously approves hospital location.
Listening to the radio this morning, I hear that Courtenay council unanimously approved the new hospital location, and that Ronna-Rae Leonard says that the location "just makes sense."
Really?
After all we've heard people debate about the location for years, and now it "just makes sense?"
Let's see here.
• It'll be right next to an elementary school. Ambulances along with others rushing to get to the hospital will now travel through a 30 km/h zone.
• We'll use the 2.37-acre play field next to Queneesh. While they've got their own playfields, I'm quite sure that the extra space will be missed and that some sports teams/programs will be affected.
• It'll be right next to what is already known to be a overly busy, high-trafficked, and accident-prone corner (Ryan and Lerwick). Add more traffic? Accident rate here is likely only to get worse.
• The property is locked on all sides with regard to expansion and growth; as the years go by and the population of the valley increases, there will be little option to grow the hospital to accommodate (unless we decide we want to bulldoze either the school or the college).
• It'll be smack dab in the middle of a neighbourhood that is already complaining weekly to Courtenay council about the noise from Costco. And we're going to add ambulances with sirens and helicopters to the mix? Those people are going to be really happy about that.
• If we ever have a flood, earthquake, or other disaster that puts the bridge out, everyone on the west side of the river is basically out of luck; they'll all need to go to Campbell River to reach the nearest hospital.
"It just makes sense?" Sorry, Ronna-Rae, but in my opinion this location makes no sense whatsoever. Never has.
I moved to the Valley eight years back, and have just been stunned at how poorly this whole thing has been planned. There's lots of available land here in the Valley that would have been suitable for this project.
I'm just left stunned and in disbelief that anyone thought the announced location was a good idea.
Graham TerMarsch,
Area A