Get dialed in on overdoses

Dear editor, It appears that many of the opioid overdoses due to fentanyl are happening in people's homes, not on the street.

Clearly the street overdoses can be handled by a supervised injection site such as Insite.

I have a suggestion for how to improve the overdose deaths where a single person is injecting themselves in a home. Such people are quite likely to have a job (since they are not homeless) and have a smartphone (as most people do).

If an app were created for smartphones (IOS and Android) that they could use when they shot up then if they didn’t respond after an appropriate interval to a loud signal it would automatically notify authorities (say via a call or text to 911) that there was an overdose in progress at the specified address and/or at the GPS location.

This would require that either 911 accept such automated calls or that some other organization be willing to interface with the 911 system to pass along that an overdose was in progress.

I don’t think most addicts want to die so if there was a way to get their phone to call for help when they needed it they would use it. Bill Webb Penticton how much the different components of developing Banks Crescent were going to cost and what percentage of each were going to be paid by for the developer and what, if anything, should be paid by the District of Summerland, and ultimately us, the residents.

It could have been presented quite simply. Something like:

Cost of widening Solly Rd to collector status with footpaths = $X. Developer to pay X per cent.

Cost of traffic light installation at the corner of Solly Road & Latimer Avnue = $X dollars. Developer to pay X per cent.

The list could go on. Establishing that Solly Road is not currently in the masterplan for upgrading tells me one thing – it is fine to service its current amount of traffic.

In light of this, it would seem to me that the developer should be paying 100 per cent of all these costs.

There are also a couple of big puzzle pieces still completely missing.

Nobody mentioned the cost of extra police, fire or ambulance staff, yet we know that a certain ratio of emergency services per population is required.

The fish hatchery and its water source weren’t part of the equation either.

Lark says they have offered to build a water treatment facility. Good. But what do we really know about this plan?

Even if they build it to the standard required by the hatchery, who is going to pay to oversee the running of it and who is going to pay to keep it maintained?

A “hiccup” in the water temperature, the turbidity or a microorganism getting in could kill the one million fry the hatchery raises annually within hours.

As the hatchery brings $100 million into this region of the province each year, a very real fact is that the provincial government could sue the District of Summerland for lost revenue.

It seems that two of the most influential staff members helping paint this rosy picture of Lark’s planned development are the same two who don’t even live in this town. In my math, this does not equate.

What we were supposed to get at the COW meeting was a summary of the cost of expenses verses money generated. What we got instead was a brush-off. Donna Wahl Summerland