Editor:
Re: City abandons plans for $1m archway, July 11
A person should give credit when credit is due, so kudos to the majority of White Rock council who suddenly snapped to their senses on July 9 and voted not to proceed with the $1-million gateway feature project for Johnston Road.
That is quite a high-dive flip-flop from less than four months ago when, led by Mayor Wayne Baldwin and White Rock Coalition leading man Coun. Grant Meyer, a majority of council thought it’s wonderful and “exciting” to have an opportunity to blow $1 million of public funds on some unnecessary monument.
One can only wonder if the municipal election that is now looming just three months away on Oct. 20 is the true sobering influence on all of this?
And how is it that Baldwin and Meyer rather conveniently both happened to be absent from the meeting when the rest of council “unanimously” voted to abandon this misadventure?
More importantly, the public has a right to know how much public money the city has already spent on consultants, designs, staff time, meetings, surveys and the like on this now-abandoned project.
One wonders if the city will be freely forthcoming with this information or will it be necessary for a member of the public to submit a freedom of information (FOI) request?
Dennis Lypka, Surrey
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I was pleased that patience and common sense prevailed.
I wonder how much money was wasted in this process.
Perhaps the city should have had the same patience in issuing permits for so many highrises at the same time.
I was alarmed that Coun. David Chesney was not permitted to have consulted with the city lawyer (Call rejected for legal opinion on highrise moratorium, June 15) – the same lawyer who said his initial motion was illegal – to change his motion on moratorium on future highrises so that the council could have agreed to at least evaluate the impact of the highrises they have approved so quickly.
Aroon Shah, White Rock