Things just never seem to change or improve with council members Don (Duck) Paterson’s attitude regarding the development of the Ladysmith harbour.
His comments printed in the Chronicle record him as commenting that ‘He did not think anything would be accomplished during the next tenure of the mayor and council’. He suggests that there needs to be more consultation with Ladysmith residents as well as more studies first to make sure any decision is the correct one because we will only get one chance to do it correctly.
It is not hard to understand why it is taking so long to improve the harbour with this type of negative attitude. Ladysmith has already studied this harbour to death which is well recorded. The excuse regarding an environmental study has worn so thin one can see through the fabric. The privately owned lot which holds riparian rights above dogpatch has been used as an excuse for the last seven years I have lived in Ladysmith. The owners are wanting a large sum of money for this narrow strip of land and holding Ladymith up to ransom because we don’t have their price in the treasury. However a solution has been suggested a number of times but ignored by our town council.
[The] solution: Ladysmith has the powers of expropriation in its arsenal.
We need to engage three well respected appraisers to each appraise this strip of land and each give an honest market value for it. Then our new mayor and council approach the owners with an offer and if they don’t accept the offer go to court and commence an expropriation action.
Once Ladysmith owns this narrow strip of land we will have the water rights and can proceed to clean up the water area known as “dogpatch”. Hopefully November 19/11 will result in a turnover of council members and end up with new council members with imagination and positive attitudes.
Don Harrison
Ladysmith