Editor:
Dear mayor Cobb and council members:
My name is Tim Hicks and I live at 1154 Latin Ave., backing on to Beauchamp Park.
I apologize that I am unable to attend the May 12 meeting due to a previous commitment to babysit our granddaughter in Smithers.
Please accept this letter as my voice.
When we moved to Williams Lake in 2010 we bought our house specifically because of its location adjacent to Beauchamp Park. Why?
It is because a park is a place for the people, a green space, where nature, neighbours and people interact to find peace, serenity and an atmosphere to regenerate.
I was advised by my new neighbours that city council had, in the past, tried to sell the park and the then minister and MLA Bill Vander Zalm had intervened for the people on behalf of the province and had Beauchamp designated a park, a park in perpetuity.
This should be available from archives.
Beauchamp Park is greatly appreciated by the neighbourhood residents. Almost daily, a disabled neighbour brings his dog to the park for exercise.
The boulevard part of the park is often mowed by the locals, while the park awaits the scheduled maintenance by city works.
Children from the rental units have learned to ride their bikes down the centre strip of the park, instead of on the street with traffic around.
In winter it is used for cross country skiing, and locals have even planted a tree.
Things were looking up when city works removed stumps in 2015, making it easier for maintenance and less dangerous for catching a football, etc.
Beauchamp Park and the other parks in question have been passed on to this city as a heritage, a trust so to speak, and a gift of wisdom, by our city founders and city planners.
It is my hope our city and the current council will not become infamous because it lacked the wisdom to preserve irreplaceable green space.
We are counting on you to uphold and maintain the foresight, the trust and the legacy gift and heritage passed on to all of us by our predecessors.
I wish to thank you in advance for your careful consideration of this matter, and to ask you to look elsewhere for means to generate revenue.
Beauchamp Park, and the other parks in question, should not e for sale, ever.
We love Beauchamp Park and we care for all our parks. They are invaluable in terms of green space and a legacy gift for future generations.
The cost of losing our parks is too great.
Tim Hicks
Williams Lake