Dear Editor:
I’ve been a resident of this town for the majority of my life. I grew up being able to ride my bike around my neighbourhood, got to watch my sister be on our residential streets with roller blades. I remember being able to walk safely along the side of the road, without risk of being in the way of traffic. These are things that, as I drive around my hometown, I can’t see my own daughter being able to do.
The condition of our streets is pitiful. I’m embarrassed, as I navigate the war-zone that has become my hometown. Rolling, broken pavement with large protrusions dot our arteries and residential roads. Has Ponoka become a town where, only if you own a jacked-up truck, you are able to get around without risking damage to your vehicle?
Take the entrances to 7-Eleven as a prime example. How many years has the pavement on the west approaches been sunken below the curbing far enough to pose a serious risk of damage to the nose of your car?
I know I speak for a large number of my fellow citizens when I say the tens of thousands of dollars invested in our vehicles are not light burdens to carry. These are things of value to us and the idea investing further thousands in repairs, because our town can’t figure it out, makes me sick. How about, instead of focusing so much of our attention on the five-day wrecking ball that greets our town every summer, we start paying attention to the condition of our home. Or risk having visitors come to live the rodeo spirit, and leaving with a foul taste over the upkeep and condition of its host. Soon, there might not be a way to distinguish our roads from our neighbours to the north.
I’d like to see my daughter grow up with the same beautiful small town that I did. Our kids shouldn’t have to deal with sinkholes that would cause them to be in harm’s way to avoid it.
Get it together, Ponoka.
Ken Varty