Wednesday, March 12, 2014 Have an opinion you’d like to share? email editor@cowichannewsleader.com phone 250-746-4471
YOUR TURN Next generation in pretty good shape in our valley
Dear editor Re: your Feb. 28 editorial. A couple of Saturdays ago I went for a run in Chemainus. It had snowed and when I got back to my truck I walked around for a cooldown. I noticed a couple of kids riding their bikes in the snow around Chemainus Elementary School. After the cooldown I went back to my truck to stretch. As I was leaning against the truck, using it to stretch, one of the boys took time out of his fun to ride over to ask me if I needed help. I thanked him and explained I was just stretching after a run. So, all in all, I think we’re in pretty good shape here in the valley. Rob D. Kernachan Chemainus
Fostering can make a world of difference
Dear editor Re: Aaron Bichard’s Feb. 26 column on fostering. My wife and I have had many foster children in our home over the years. Some had problems that were difficult to manage, but most just needed a loving, stable home environment. Two of our children were sisters who came to live with us at ages 10 and 11. We guided the girls through elementary and secondary school. Both girls went on to university and graduated. One was named Washington State Teacher of the Year for her work with special ed students. The other obtained an MBA. They call us Mom and Dad, and their kids call
We asked you: “Would you support a B.C. Teacher’s strike?” You answered:
69 per cent NO
To vote on the next Question of the Week, log onto the web poll at www.cowichannewsleader.com
Is Cowichan’s government doing enough to attract more businesses here?
Cowichan News Leader Pictorial 9
“I don’t want business coming here, but for governments to take care of local resources to make jobs from things like fishing, but we’re messing that up. People want to open businesses but don’t have the money.”
“It doesn’t seem so. Duncan’s lacking in jobs; entertainment businesses are lacking here too. It seems (leaders) aren’t co-operating with big business. Not everyone can afford to open their own business here.”
Dayana Robinson, Duncan
KyrenTeufel, Duncan
What do you think? Log on to www.cowichannewsleader.com and answer our Question of the Week. Results will be published in our next edition.
Sandy Gill of Team Island Savings cheers on Link during Bowl For Kids Sake March 2 at Duncan Lanes. The Big Brothers Big Sisters annual fundraiser event to support mentoring saw 38 teams participating and brought in approximately $18,500 — on par with last year’s total.
us Grandma and Grandpa. We have others who send us Christmas cards, and pictures of their children. We still get notes thanking us for showing what a normal home could be. Sometimes foster care is the best thing that can happen to a child. Please, let’s not paint all foster kids and foster homes with the ugly brush. The following is a note we received from one of our ex-foster children when she got married: “To my parents: You moulded my life and through your own and taught me to be myself, to dream my dreams, to reach for my goals, how to give and how to love. You have always been there helping and guiding me along the way. Thank you for all you have been to me.” Ron Jeskey Crofton
Maybe a shakeup at the top is what the CVRD needs
Dear editor Why was CVRD CAO Warren Jones fired? It is unacceptable to say mutual agreement; that is umm, well you know bovine droppings! So Frank Raimondo is moving in for awhile to sort out the mess that was overdue for a shakeup. Good, now he and Tom Anderson must sort things out and restructure the dysfunctional mess that was created by Jones and a compliant and obedient CVRD board. These are two seasoned veterans and they might just do that. As a nine-year recovering survivor of the board, I sure hope so. Richard Hughes comments submitted at cowichannewsleader.com
Bad visibility, bad merge habits create crash zone
Dear editor Re: the Feb. 28 crash at Green Road and the TCH. I’m going to say someone stopped in the merge lane, and with zero visibility when entering that merge lane from the Commons, you have the resulting accident. I’ve seen too many people stop in that particular merge lane where they should be accelerating to merge with traffic. It is not a yield! It is not one of the
Andrew Leong
longest merge lanes we have in the valley, but if merging correctly — and I mean having the oncoming traffic do their part correctly — it works quite well. Oncoming traffic must make it possible for anyone in the merge lane to, well, merge, even if that means they have to slow down a bit, or move to the left-hand lane. Harry Veuger
comments submitted at cowichannewsleader.com
Bill should turn his sharp eyes on the library board
Dear editor Frequent letter writer Bill Dumont is very critical of local government expenditures. I would like to suggest he apply his analytical skills to the operations of the Vancouver Island Regional Library. In the age of the internet private bookstores are going broke. Within the last couple of years VIRL has expanded. There has been loud fanfare in each of the separate communities where new library buildings have been built.
If Bill were to go over to Salt Spring he would be able to see the architectural qualities of one of the largest new buildings in Ganges. There have also been new library buildings built in Port Renfrew, Nanaimo North, Cumberland and Cowichan Lake. All these have been built with little controversy. All were built using plans developed by expensive architectural consultants. The Victoria Library has been trying for years to relocate its Central Library, but because of their municipal structure they have better oversight of their spending. Gerald McVeigh Duncan
Roundabouts a far superior alternative
Dear editor For the second time in three months, you’ve raised a yellow flag about the roundabouts being installed or planned in Chemainus, while at the same time admitting you have no expertise on the subject (Our Take, Feb. 26). This time you are quoting a resident in Saltair who says 8,000 vehicles a day at the Chemainus/River Road intersection makes for a “a rather quiet, even lazy, sort of intersection.” Well, maybe I’ve become spoiled by living in a small town, but to me that’s a lot of traffic for any twolane arterial road. Local roundaphobes say we can’t have circles at consecutive intersections only a block apart, yet they gladly accept traffic lights and multi-way stops at every block. We get no informed technical analysis from our stop-sign huggers about what will supposedly go wrong in Chemainus if we install multiple roundabouts along a single stretch of road. Instead, we just get a lot of fear-mongering. I’m no engineer either, but I know from practical experience that traffic on a road handling 8,000 vehicles per day moves more safely and efficiently through a traffic circle than through any kind of stop-controlled intersection. I’m very grateful we have politicians and engineers in North Cowichan who are determined to invest in a safe and efficient system of roads, and ignore the pennypinching naysayers who would have our municipal arterial routes turned into a local version of that hypersignalized stopway from hell, the Island Trans-Canada Highway. Chris Carss Chemainus
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