I don’t share the opinion that the City of Red Deer puts taxes to good use (City taxes put to good use, letter to the editor by Terry and Maria Boase).
The city hasn’t even figured out that snow has to be cleared and there is talk of a $90-million pool being added to the city on top of the three existing aquatic centres. Snow is left to fall, settle, freeze into an uneven icy terrain that Red Deerians are then stuck driving on — or just plain stuck.
Since I have lived here the city took out an entire lane and parking zone downtown to add a grassy knoll and pretty boulevard. Apparently its all about appearances.
The piano in the Ross Street downtown patio — formerly a street beside parking spaces — is painted with a graffiti design and horribly out of tune. Pianos were not meant to be moved incessantly nor to be exposed to the elements. Go Red Deer!
Any instrument exposed to moisture, dust, heat, and cold (extreme temperatures) will suffer damage as a result. Any musician knows that. Now the city wants to keep the Ross Street Patio open in -40C weather on streets they don’t maintain. How would anybody dumb enough to attend navigate the freshly fallen snow still on the ground from last week? (Sorry I can’t make it.)
The city cannot combat nature’s basics — and refuses to pay damages to someone’s vehicle when it is a direct result of their negligence — but lets put the funds into a pool we don’t need and a patio full of weathered instruments.
And what about chickens in town — their feces leeching into our soil and possibly water system? Do they think of that? Or the extra wear and tear (literally) on overtaxed properties?
I wish they had given licences to raise donkeys in our backyards instead of chickens ... that way the jackasses in City Hall would have the support they need. They certainly don’t have mine!
Bailey Coltman
Red Deer