City ‘leaders’ creating sleepy retirement community
Re “Memorial Centre second pad still an option: Juby” (June 19) —
It is time for our mayor, council and city staff to get their heads out of the sand and start providing our city with strong leadership and vision for the future. For far too long, it appears that the primary objective of some councillors is simply to minimize the municipal tax rate in order to preserve their reelection and appease our growing senior population (of which I am now one).
As the unemployment rate in our city is one of the highest in the country and more and more young people are growing up and moving out, it is becoming increasingly difficult to attract new business as our labour pool erodes. We need more business other than retirement residences and health services.
We lag behind many other communities with our aging infrastructure and lack of vision. It seems nothing gets done without an outside consultant advising us on what we should do. Then more often than not decide on the minimum bare bones choice to keep taxes low. I dare say that this is not the vision nor leadership that we need now or in the future.
A good case in point is the discussion taking place over the need to replace Northcrest Arena. Yes we can add another pad to the Memorial Centre or build another single or twin pad arena but that is not good enough. Drive down to Cobourg and look at the sports complex they have built or the Legends complex in Oshawa. Orangeville has a beautiful sports complex. These are just several of many developments in other communities with smaller populations and tax bases. We look like and are second rate in comparison. Evinrude Centre, our newest arena, doesn't even have sliding entrance doors requiring players to drop their bags to open the door. Even the Douro arena has that!
Drive down Lansdowne St. and admire the crumbling grandstand that is well past its life expectancy. Can we expect the fight with the Agricultural Society to continue on more many more years with annual patchwork repairs to this eyesore?
To me, the main intersection of our city is the axis of Lansdowne and George streets. Residents and tourists are going to drive through this hub in order to go downtown, to Little Lake and Lansdowne St. Morrow Park is a natural location for an up to date, multi-functional recreational complex with quad ice surfaces, swimming pool, library, running track etc. You can still have room for attractive landscaping to show off our city. The current plan for flower gardens and a walking trail is hardly enticing.
If you are looking at relocating a business, would you pick Peterborough with a senior majority population, lower labour pool and second-rate infrastructure?
When the 407 is finished, will there be anything at the end of the road to bring business to our community or do we want to continue our reputation as a sleepy retirement community with a lack of progressive leadership and eco- nomic development? (PS that will not keep our taxes low, quite the opposite!) LARRY DORRIS
Spillsbury Dr.