In response to the letter by Dan Spence, (Tue 15 Feb 2011 edition of the Chronicle). Dan, I respectfully disagree with your assertion that the mayor, (and council), do not listen to “the people.”
I attended all but one of the “Visioning Meetings” that the town held a couple of years ago. There it was proposed by the majority of people that we move towards being sustainable; part of that being bicycle/walking paths and bringing a Trolley to our town.
Also proposed was a plan to increase the density of housing to improve the cost effectiveness of mass transit use.
Perhaps our first transit vehicle should have been a handy-dart bus, but I’ve heard from local citizens that quite a few young parents, (with children in strollers), use the trolley to go to and from Transfer Beach. I don’t have enough facts about days and times of usage, so please, let’s debate the trolley issue another time. I attend as many Council meetings as I can and will confidently state here and now that our mayor and council work very hard on behalf of our citizens to meet the needs and goals of the “Vision” that we gave them.
They do disagree with each other sometimes, but, at the end of the day, they make decisions that benefit Ladysmith.
There are many reasons no one has run against Mayor Rob Hutchins. I would say that the silent majority have observed him, hard at work in many functions around town, as well as in his administrative and leadership duties at city hall, and simply don’t want to work that hard on behalf of our town.
Clearly, the majority of people that vote are happy with the status quo. There are some people in Ladysmith, as you no doubt have also noted, that would make a good mayor.
However, in nearly every case they are already heavily involved in various volunteer organizations. Respectfully, we already have a great, no, make that outstanding mayor and council that have tremendous energy, listen attentively to the “vision”, (direction), we citizens have given them and take action accordingly.
Bill Drysdale
Ladysmith