The Similkameen News Leader
Editorial
October 9, 2007
SOMETHING ELSE FOR THE OCP
Maybe we should have taken the questionnaire from the Official Community Plan (OCP) meeting home and worked on it as if it were homework. On second thought, that may not be such a good idea, seeing as we have a couple dogs and a cat. And one of those dogs just loves to eat and shred paper.
The reason why we think we should have had a few days to think over the OCP questions is simple. We would have had time to think them over. One thing we hope the OCP will consider is a way to somehow change the elected positions of Mayor and Councillors into a real paying full-time jobs. We're talking career-building positions that would allow for full-time attention placed on the operation, promotion and development of the Town of Princeton.
It's never been the fault of any previous Council, but when it pays what amounts to not much more than part-time wages, no wonder most of our elected officials in the past couple of decades had Oreal' jobs on the side. We think if our Town Council were paid better, we may get our money's worth out of them during their three-year term. The OCP is the document that could make that happen.
We also think any new subdivision developed should have all streets named after pioneers from the area instead of birds or trees or something else that has no historic connection to our community. If you dig into the history of most of the existing downtown streets, they can often be traced back to some historic family or landmark.
We think there's a need for Princeton Hotel Drive and Harold Allison Crescent or F. P. Cook Avenue and Johnny Chance Street. There's got to be somewhere worthy of the name Newmont Road.
We need to find a way to honour our past as we work our way into the future and unless we misunderstood all the flashy, expensive and somewhat overwhelming graphics at the OCP meeting that the OCP is the place for all of this.
Oh, and we think Casual Friday should be a weekly holiday.
