There was a big coincidence in Red Deer last week. The property tax notices arrived in our mail boxes, and the Great Debacle on Ross Street started.
What is the connection, you ask? The roads in this city are deteriorating at a horrendous rate, and the city is blocking off one of the newly paved roads and installing benches, tables and umbrellas, and digging trenches for paving stone crosswalks. And they are using my tax dollars to fund this folly.
The city, in its wisdom, has decided that Ross Street, west of the war memorial park (also built in the middle of the street) should be made into a picnic area in an effort to attract shoppers into the downtown core. What folly!
Let’s eliminate half of the parking stalls on Ross Street so that folks can walk on the road instead of on the sidewalks.
Never mind that they have to park several blocks away in the new parkade, and pay premium rates to park. The street people who frequent that area will have places to sit and rest — under the shade of an umbrella, at that. I wonder who puts the umbrellas away each night?
Come on City Hall, get your priorities in order. If we don’t keep the streets in good repair, we won’t even be able to get downtown to see where our tax dollars are being wasted.
Milt Sorensen
Red Deer