I hope this gets to Santa in time for changes to be made in the new year. Please bring local politicians the gift of listening, to us and each other.
For a long time now that ability has been dormant - maybe it once existed, but it has atrophied to the point that rebuilding it from the existing remnants is likely too tough.
It isn’t just about recreation options, it is about the inability of those in charge of local affairs - regional governance, education, infrastructure/services, etc. - to lead us where we would prefer to go rather than fit policies to their biases.
Few in the area are in favour of multi-tiered recreation offerings, or exclusive rather than inclusive opportunities in other areas, or delays in needed, even mandated, infrastructure projects, all of which we now have.
Nobody is blameless in this.
The City of Trail seems primarily motivated by its leaders desire for a, “District Municipality,” which, in their view, would centralize decision making where it belongs, in the, “wiser,” hands of those who administer the wealthiest community in the region.
Outlying communities seem primarily motivated by fighting back, often against common sense, against any and every initiative that emanates from the Silver City. Their view seems to be that if something is good for Trail it cannot be beneficial to anyone who doesn’t live and vote there.
None of it makes sense, and very little of it serves to enrich the lives of the people all these, “leaders,” represent. It stifles progress, and co-operation.
It has come to the point that little is done anywhere and what does get done is almost always from a settlement based on intra-regional rivalry and acrimony.
It surprised me when I returned from years of living elsewhere how much of that acrimonious rivalry existed. Beaver Valley parents worked tirelessly to, “Beat Trail,” on every level - even though many of those were reared, and their abilities nurtured, in Trail. It wasn’t that they were just loyal to their new neighbourhoods, it was that everything about it, on top of developing excellence their, was so negative in the end.
Rossland, finally, probably now has the education configuration it should have been seeking all along, albeit whatever bugs involved will need a while to work out.
In the meantime, of course, Crowe is smaller and less valuable than it might have been and the middle school configuration is gone with the acrimonious winds.
There are many other issues. Suffice to say resolutions to them will be more likely to be forthcoming if the listening skills of those charged with resolving them can be enhanced.
Dave Thompson
Trail