An open letter to Surrey Mayor Dianne Watts.
The City of Surrey prides itself on being ‘The City of Parks,’ and I, for one, enjoy my walk most mornings around the two ponds in Southmere Village Park in South Surrey.
However, these two ponds were drained Feb. 15, and the work was to last approximately five weeks, which brings us to March 21.
On March 22, I emailed the parks department and within a few hours received a telephone response telling me that they had found “soil contamination” and, therefore, they had to deal with this challenge.
Unfortunately, there are some who use these ponds as dumping grounds, and a pile of unwanted bicycles, tires, strollers and other junk has been collected and stored on-site within the north-east fence. I wonder what else has been dumped into these unique ponds that support an abundance of wildlife?
On my April 4 walk, I checked out the progress on the project, and am sad to report the progress is nill – no change over the two weeks.
My concern also is for the ducklings and goslings that should be arriving any day now. I hope the city has made arrangements to give them a new home.
I invite Mayor Watts to take a walk through Southmere Village Park and perhaps get some action going so that the heavy equipment, gravel and sand, cinder blocks, orange fencing and empty ponds will once again be turned into a local refuge for wildlife and allow us to once again use the pathways and enjoy this beauty spot.
Douglas Brown, Surrey