Walking on broken glass
Souris Mayor David MacDonald and former resident lock horns over potential dangerous debris on town’s beach
Souris Mayor David MacDonald is firing back at a former resident who is complaining about broken glass on the town’s beach.
Mike MacDonald, who grew up in the town but lives in California now, was home visiting recently when he went kite flying with friends at Souris Beach and observed shards of broken glass all over the beach.
He took some of the glass to town hall to complain.
However, his complaints led to town employees complaining about him and an eventual heated email exchange with Souris Mayor David MacDonald, a portion of which was provided to The Guardian as follows:
“Was told u live in B.C. hence reference to drugs but told u live in U.S. hence your Trumplike treatment of my staff, still waiting for apology, but the Donald does not do that,’’ the mayor tells Mike MacDonald in one of the emails, referring to U.S. President Donald Trump.
In an interview with The Guardian later, the mayor explained why he was so upset with the former resident.
“He came into our town hall and was extremely negative and abusive to our staff,’’ the mayor told The Guardian.
“He was extremely, extremely ignorant to them. I’ve already told the girls if he shows up again to call Canada’s finest (RCMP). I’m not going to allow some idiot to show up and abuse my staff. We just don’t put up with that.’’
Mike MacDonald said the broken glass is a serious issue that needs to be addressed. He said town staff said they were aware of the issue.
“I was exasperated,’’ Mike said of his own demeanour at town hall. “He thinks I was rude and not polite to them. I was exasperated, but what they were doing wasn’t effective because there was still a tremendous hazard down there.
“It’s so scary. The mayor should be advocating for his constituents, that if there is an issue with the park they take care of it rather than attack the person who is raising the issue.’’
The mayor said the town has been doing what it can to clean up the beach but the glass keeps washing up.
“This is just one of these come-from-away kids. They went to school here, got their education here, they left and now they’re coming back telling us how to run things,’’ the mayor said.
According to the province, government conveyed ownership of the beach to the town about five years ago.
“If you walk down on the beach, there is a crazy amount of broken bottles, shards that can literally go through your foot. It’s terrible. It is really frightening,’’ Mike said. “I was just stunned. I just could not believe these hazards were on the beach.’’
The mayor said the beach is subject to extremely strong tidal action that makes keeping it clean quite a chore.
“We’ve had such difficulty dealing with the environment trying to keep that beach clean that the last thing in the world we need is some mental midget coming in from away to tell us how to run our beach,’’ the mayor said.
The mayor said people know he’s always been a strong defender of the town and is making no apologies for his comments.
“Mr. MacDonald started this particular war, let him finish it by going into the town hall and apologizing to my staff and that will be the end of it. And, if he doesn’t have enough intestinal fortitude to do that, he should leave. End of story.’’