Information needed on Little River
Re: City to meet with Little River residents about riverside structures, by Chris Thompson, June 5. As a resident of Bertha Avenue, I do not argue that there have been residents who have damaged the integrity of the berm, but the city engineer has given council only half of the information required to make a proper decision.
Residents of Bertha and Riverdale avenues (not including the Villages) own the land under Little River as well as the land that the berm sits on. When I had my property survey done five years ago, the original right of way for the berm was eight feet wide.
The berm actually sits on a 17-foot wide strip of land that cuts across the width of my property. Legally, I could cut the berm back to eight feet.
Two to three years ago, the city repaired the break walls near the pumping stations in two areas. The break wall on both sides at Riverside Drive was not torn out and replaced, but a new wall was installed on the water side of the old wall. This narrowed the river by approximately 10 per cent. That means water flow was reduced by 10 per cent. That is far more than the impediments the city engineer reported.
Furthermore, the impediments mentioned by the engineer are all between the break wall and the berm. I noticed he did not mention the concrete foundations for the walking bridge, which are far larger than anything on the river.
Let us not forget the road bridge on Riverside Drive, which acts like a plug at the end of the drain. The river narrows there and is capped by the roadway. Water will have nowhere to go but over the berm, flooding the Riverside area.
As a resident of Riverside, if I have to choose between bike lanes on Riverside Drive or the whole area not being flooded, it is not a tough one.
Your land, your rights
I lived on Bertha Avenue next to the Little River for 30 years, from 1961 to 1981. During the time of the floods in the 1970s, Little River did not overflow its banks, at least not where we lived.
Elizabeth Kishkon, mayor at the time, had called it Swanee River and sought to have improvements made, such as the berm and steel break walls. She viewed it from her home in Solidarity Towers nearby.
What a beautiful river it was then. Later, the trees we had grown were cut down, and the berm and break wall put in place. How could this be allowed on private land? Our blueprints showed the property lines extending to the halfway point of Little River.
We were dictated to. The improvements were made on our land, without consent. Have we no right to say what is done on our land after paying property taxes?
Why are these people being dictated to now? Have they no rights to improve and use their properties as they wish? David Braukis, Comber