News Leader News
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
- July 25, 2006
To the Editor:
Have you ever been awakened by a power tool fired up at the crack of dawn or been denied use of a public lane because a neighbor has usurped it as their own private parking lot? Have you ever wondered exactly how much noise constitutes 'too much' noise at a house party?
Have you ever wondered why some individuals seem to get away with everything, but the minute you appear to commit the slightest transgression the authorities are at your door?
If you have answered 'yes' to any of these, you are not alone. For the most part, it would seem reasonable that the average citizen could live comfortably within the constraints of the laws, given that they know, with accuracy, what those laws are.
It was October of 1996 when my wife and I began our quest for knowledge of those laws, specifically the Town of Princeton bylaws. You see in Vancouver, in Area 'H' (Town of Princeton excluded) and in most towns and municipalities, you can go to city hall or the equivalent thereof, and for about ten dollars or so you can receive a bound copy of the bylaws for that jurisdiction.
I have been told that alternately, most jurisdictions have their bylaws posted on a website from which they can be easily downloaded. In Princeton however, this item or service is not available.
If you have a specific question about a particular bylaw, the staff will usually look it up for you on a case/need to know basis. We have found that whenever we have asked anyone associated with Town Hall over the last ten years, invariably we are either brushed off or given the run-around.
It's a pity that in this town we have such hypocrisy. Some people can do whatever they want while to the rest of us, a different set of rules apply.
There are many and diverse wrongdoings here that are allowed to proceed only by way of silence - A code of silence and complicity used in order to keep certain knowledge out of the hands of the average citizen (and potential investors) in order to systematically dispense selective justice and application of law by the powers that be.
All things considered, I would advise accordingly;
1) That potential investors from out of town do their homework and first find out exactly what they are getting into and;
2) That those of us already here might, when the minions of the bylaw-makers come knocking to admonish us of this or that, to advise them that on the basis of they're not being readily available as a whole whereby we could study and familiarize ourselves with them, we consider their bylaws as being in abeyance.
- Robert Almond, East Princeton
Dear Editor:
BC as a province, within living memory has produced much more than it's share of world-class athletes. There have been so many that to start naming them would invariably lead to many being left unmentioned. Have you ever noticed that central Canada's media does not recognize these athletes as British Columbians, but they quickly become Canadians when they attain fame internationally?
As long as I can remember, I've followed spectator sports. So, as a sports nut in this province I've had many ups and downs--- mostly downs. And living here as I do I've had many occasions to second-guess the management of our professional sports teams. Myself, as well as hundreds of other armchair quarterbacks can point back to disastrous decisions made by the corporate elite and say, I told you so.
In pro football its always been, covet thy neighbour. As soon as the Lions lose to another team, we must have their quarterback and if possible their coach.
This commandment-breaking envy has led to disastrous consequences more than a few times since that teams inception in O54. And it looks like another drought is in the offing. Let's see, hmm--whom can we steal for next season?
The Canucks have to be even more laughable. As soon as we have the nucleus of a winner, the inmates take over the asylum. Then a good coach gets fired to appease the overpaid prima donnas who only perform if they get their own way. Fortunately for that club, hockey is the game of choice for British Columbians and the diehard fans are so rabid that the junior Giants could fill the corporate arena known as GM Place.
Let's take a wild guess at how many of their first ten games the Canucks win this year---sorry, you can't have zero, that's my choice. Oh, please prove me wrong!
Sincerely,
HPToews, Princeton
Letter to the Editor:
To the thief who stole our solar lights on Similkameen Avenue in the early hours of July 18th.
Stupid, Stupid, Stupid. You not only left yourself open to charges of theft and trespass by dark, but you were so intent on pulling the lights off of the fence, you failed to notice that little red light following you around our yard.
As most thieves you stole, but you left something behind.
Your picture and good ones, too. Yes, that is a camera mounted on the peak of our garage.
You have until the morning of Friday, July 18th to have those lights placed back on our lawn or you can try and guess what I will do with the pictures.
If the lights are returned, I will destroy the pictures. Hopefully it will have taught you a lesson.
The choice is yours.
- Don & Julie Fleming, Princeton
The Editor:
THE PRINCETON LAMENT
Oh Dear, Oh Dear those dreadful deer,
What can we do if they come near?
Our kids and dogs must run in fear!
Those wretched deer are out to get us,
Our roses, tulips and our lettuce.
They lay in ambush attack our cars!
Put these scoundrels behind bars!
Fence in the town to end the threat,
If that doesn't work, just shoot them dead!
I can't believe we are contemplating yet another public meeting to contemplate the fate of the local deer population.
Let me be clear. I love the deer. They are part of the reason we moved here! They are a natural resource and as much mine as they are yours.
Before anyone launches a campaign to kill my deer you had better be prepared with solid figures that prove without doubt that the deer population within the Town limits is highly disproportional to the surrounding wilderness. Do not include the garbage dump because it represents a flagrant case of feeding the deer and hence, entrapment.
I would love to know just where this multitude of deer is roaming about. I live as close to wilderness as you can and still be in the city limits. A deer or two might wander through my front yard once every couple of weeks and once in a while I see one or two along Tulameen Avenue hardly an invasion!
My sentiments in this issue are obvious. If some individuals fear and hate the deer, also show your bias. There are some among us who stir up public sentiment by throwing out one red herring after another.
We are NOT under threat of Lyme disease. Lucky for us, Ioxedes scapularis, commonly called the deer tick and its cousin, Ioxedes pacificus, the carrier in the West, appear to prefer a more temperate climate than we have to offer. In British Columbia these ticks are only found in the Fraser River Delta, the Gulf Islands and Vancouver Island. Aside from being a preferred host for ticks of various kinds, deer have nothing to do with Lyme disease. Should ticks of any kind become a problem for our deer, control the ticks! Yes we can do that!
Deer are NOT naturally aggressive. Aggressive by definition means tending to attack and be hostile. This is simply not a characteristic of deer you will find in any literature on wildlife. A failure to run away does not equate to aggression neither does standing your ground in defense of your offspring; as any good mother would do.
I have spent hours on the Internet searching for serious human physical injuries and deaths caused directly by deer. Nearly a million deer die on North American roads every year and - yes they take a small number of people with them. Whose fault is that? Yes, I found two fatal attacks by male deer in rut. In one case a pet deer fatally gored its owner in a similar case a man suffered an injury to his face and died of a related infection. I found about fifteen other reported injury incidents one significant head injury and various bumps and bruises. That is all I could glean for the entire North American continent with a population of 331,473,276 million or more people. If we assume half of these people live in metropolitan areas and have zero chance of encountering deer your chance of being injured or killed by a deer appears to be one in 9,749,214 million (165,736,638 M/17). Do we all feel safer now?
One recent letter to the editor likened the Princeton deer problem to the Banff elk population not exactly apples and apples. A bull elk weighs 800 to 1,000 pounds, a cow 600 to 800, about the size of a horse. Our male deer weigh in between 150 to 300 pounds tops, while females range from 90 to 200 pounds. I can well imagine that the sight of a 1,000 pound elk walking down the street would be intimidating, but the main complaints in Banff come from golfers who resent elk peeing on and pawing their greens. We humans are so magnanimous!
The landscape and gardening complaints irritate me the most. This is NOT the Lower Mainland. It took me one season to learn that tulips and tea roses are deer catnip! There is an abundance of marvelous shrubs, perennials and annuals of equal beauty that thrive here - of absolutely no interest to deer. If you don't have landscaping success here do some research or visit Don and Anna's Garden Centre in Keremeos. They are wonderful about explaining what survives and thrives in Princeton. I truly don't understand what people are complaining about. All this gardening distress can only be explained by a stubborn addiction to plants that don't work. To me Princeton seems like gardening heaven no slugs, few aphids and lots of sun!
Once when the gate was left open a deer nibbled on some of the beans and peas in my fun garden so what! Would I support the death of even one deer over my veggies and roses absolutely NOT.
Princeton is just a small blip in an immense deer range. From the deer perspective, it is inconveniently located where they, since time immemorial have come to look for food and water. I suspect deer will be coming here for the rest of my days, and yours so let us hope we can come to a state of comfortable co-existence. Even better let us embrace them as the novel, and absolutely free, tourist attraction they can be!
- Karin Green, Princeton
Dear Editor:
I would like to thank all of those who attended and participated in our MP and jointly sponsored Community Forums over the past few months.
It was a pleasure to see so many attend our forums in Kaslo, New Denver, Castlegar, Nelson, Keremeos, Oliver and Princeton.
I certainly found them to be most informative, as did others who were there.
As the Member of Parliament, the forums are one way for me to keep in contact with our diverse riding, and also to learn what issues people are faced with on a day-to-day basis.
I would like to thank our four MLAs and the many regional directors, municipal councillors and other community leaders who took time to serve as panelists and answer the many questions that were posed by members of the community. Thanks to Andy Shadrack, Area Director from Kaslo, for suggesting this format.
A special thanks should go out to the youth panelists and attendees who participated and shared their concerns.
Thanks also to the media, for reporting the concerns and ideas that citizens raised to the panelists from all levels of government. Some of the federal issues mentioned include: Loss of CBC TV aerial reception in the Lower Similkameen valley; Development pressures affecting affordable housing in many communities; The proposed new South Okanagan Lower Similkameen Grasslands and Snowy Mountain National Park /Reserve; The need for more recreation and employment opportunities for youth in our interior towns; A proposed coal-fired plant near Princeton, and a proposed uranium mine near Beaverdell; Living up to Canada's Health Act with service standards to ensure decent care for seniors in our communities; Our changed role in Afghanistan and much, MUCH more!
My staff and I will be planning another series of meetings in the fall.
Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any suggestions or ideas.
Democracy is alive and well in this riding of BC Southern Interior!
Sincerely,
Alex Atamanenko, MP
BC Southern Interior
To The Editor;
Sir,
Of the many interests of Princeton, is it's unique game farm which is the town itself. The humans are regulated to crosswalks and bylaws, the wildlife, specifically deer have complete freedom.
The marmots even have their own waterfront condo's in "Marmotville" part of town. The raccoons are now considering moving in.
Some places worry about bird flu. Here we have "deer" garden predators and deer poo. They maraud diaperless considering pooperscoopers beneath them.
You can read their mind when they look into a fenced off area --- "wonder how those dumb humans like living in a zoo?"
Now we have the marmots. They tortured our peas and beheaded our lettuce.
Trap them some say. Have the R.C.M.P shoot them others say. Can you honestly see the the Mounties on "Marmot Patrol." As it is, they're having enough trouble apprehending those two legged rats...
Whose to blame for this situation?
Adam and Eve, they should have kept their "trap" shut. They didn't and as a result lost the farm ending up with nothing but a fig leaf and we in Princeton an unparalleled wildlife "insurgency".
Regards,
Joe Schwarz, Princeton
Dear Editor;
Last Sunday, we played host to two German cyclists who were coming down the road from Tulameen and were somewhat confused as to where the town centre was.
On further conversation, we learned that these two tourists had planned to bike the Trans Canada Trail, but were so discouraged by the condition of the trail from Hope to Brookmere and from Brookmere to Thalia that they opted for the road instead and consequently missed the most scenic part of the trail.
Whilst on the railbed, they met ATV's and dirt bikes and had found the experience most unpleasant. Another German couple that they met had had similar experiences and they too were using the road. As they related to us, they found out about the Trans Canada Trail and were filled with great enthusiasm at such a grand idea of uniting ac country from sea to sea by providing a trail.
Their whole reason for coming to Canada was to ride this trail and enjoy nature. They were very keen on enjoying nature and cities as such were not big on their agenda. They could not understand why motorized vehicles were allowed on this trail.
The advertisement and information about the trail did not say that this would be the case. In Germany, they said there are trails for those who want to enjoy non-motorized activities and for those who like to use motorized equipment, further adding, that ATV's and dirt bikes are not very common in Germany.
Their final comment was that they would not recommend the Trans Canada Trail to anyone in Germany.
- M. Masiel, Princeton
