Newcomer doesn’t have full story about lake access

Editor: Several articles about and letters from Al Janusas have recently been in the Kelowna media regarding public access to the waterfront.

It appears he wants to eliminate any obstacles that might obstruct people from walking on dry land from the bridge to the mouth of Mission Creek and beyond.

While this may be an admirable objective, Janusas is fairly new to our city and perhaps does not understand exactly how high the lake can rise beginning in May and continuing through July and into August. The lake itself will be one of the main obstacles to people trying to walk on dry land during this period.

In many cases there just is no governmentowned dry land to walk on.

He also does not seem to understand that lakefront property owners have rights too and have concerns about their liabilities if someone injures themselves while on the property that they pay to lease from the B.C. government. And in many cases it is very difficult to clearly identify exactly what land is leased and what land is owned.

Walking across leased lands by well-behaved individuals may be acceptable to many waterfront owners, but trespassing on private lands certainly will not be.

We would like to suggest that Janusas spend a couple more summers here to better understand Okanagan lake before he starts trying to divide neighbourhoods and encourage trespassing.

Bob Whitehead and Terry O’Farrell,

Kelowna