The Knowlton pool project — a citizen’s view

It was with a sense of relief that I heard about the effort to revive the Knowlton pool project. There are a lot of positive reasons to believe that the pool project is good for the town. Do you have sons or daughters, do you have grandchildren, do you have nieces or nephews, do you have friends with kids, do you have senior citizens in your life that could benefit from water activities? Perhaps you don’t think you will ever use the facilities so why should your family have to pay $57 per year to help support the pool once it has been fully paid for by the CARKE foundation, the federal and provincial governments? One day perhaps you will make it to old age and you too might benefit from low impact water activities. Perhaps an accident or illness and a slow, painful recuperation process could be the catalyst to help you decide the pool project might be worth consideration. Or perhaps someone in your family in need of a job might find a summer position and that might make it worthwhile.

Who wants an additional $57 per year added to their taxes? Perhaps the sacrifice of one extra cup of coffee per week or the occasional extra beer is just too much to give up to help support a local, year round pool. So what if the population is aging and the taxes go up as the population shrinks even further. With no new population growth the tax base will continue to shrink, the services will

The residents also expressed disappointment with elected officials over council’s decision not to hold a referendum on such an important project, which they say will have a lasting impact shrink, the job opportunities will disappear, and things will go from bad to worse. Do we want to be like our neighbouring villages to the south? We need to attract new people to our town as our population ages. Save $57 per year now, turn down the pool project, and prepare to pay ever increasing taxes as the population continues to decrease and the tax base shrinks year after year. With new services, maybe we can attract new residents, possibly new businesses, and perhaps the tax base might actually increase and the pool maintenance might pay for itself.

I, for one, will forsake that extra beer or bottle of wine to benefit not only our current residents but generations of residents for years to come. Or, if the pool project is rejected, the population will definitely continue to decrease, taxes will definitely increase, and services will definitely disappear. Oh, and did I mention the decreasing property values as we fail to attract new residents? And when it does get bad enough, I and many others might be forced to move elsewhere to help support the tax base that does provide the services we want and need. If you vote no, you might somehow save that $57 per year in a town with continuous negative population growth, fewer and fewer services, and continually growing taxes. But I doubt it.

Lac Brome

Of course I could use the pool. Being an octogenarian within a few minutes walk of the proposed site, I would indeed benefit. But unless and until the community is able to do it without funds “generously” handed out by senior governments, I say no thanks!

Knowlton

on all TBL taxpayers.

What else is new with this mayor who has failed abysmally to provide leadership on this divisive issue.

TBL’S pool project is dead in the water. It’s time to move on.

Knowlton