The Editor,
Re: "Some rules don't make sense for neighbourhood," Letters, July 6.
I have to congratulate Terry Murphy and others like him on their regular letters to our local papers and do hope our mayor and council take note of their feedback.
He, like others, has been unhappy with many, many poor decisions by council, such as the waste of tax payers' money on the oval or the "wonderful" art investment. His last letter touched on something I have often written to the city about.
As he pointed out, the front ditch and boulevard in a lot of homes in Richmond are city property but beautified and maintained by the local owners. I've lived in my present home for 18 years and I'd say I've seen a city crew clean the ditch half a dozen times in that time.
Our commitment as owner's is to spend our time and money by maintaining the ditch and the boulevard, trimming and weeding every week at quite a substantial cost to the owner. I reckon if I was to pay myself what a typical city worker costs, I could easily pay myself $150 every week.
Based on that, and the fact that I may maintain the city's ditch about 20 weeks of the year, I'd like to suggest that owner's each make up an invoice for the $3,000 and invoice the city for our cost for maintaining their property. If we don't maintain "their" property what we have is areas that are unsightly with over grown weeds, areas for rats to live, buildup of garbage, and generally ruining the surrounding areas.
Folks, let's invoice the city. They can surely afford it.
David Currie Richmond
