Skip to content

LETTER: Feeling like a second-class citizen on a priority four road

Letter writer not impressed with City of Chilliwack snow clearing on lower priority routes
20162457_web1_SnowPlowPrestRoad.0213

I got this notice twice from the powers that be in Chilliwack city hall, sent to a class two citizen and taxpayer who lives on a “Priority 4” road.

My interpretation is that the garbage may not be collected because it is:

1. not passable for vehicles, i.e. large heavy trucks;

2. unsafe for the workers who have to walk to the trash cans;

3. potentially damaging to the vehicles.

Yet residents are expected to walk where there are no sidewalks on the same roads and drive their Honda Civics where it is not safe for others? Does Canada Post suspend delivery? How are residents to travel for appointments and groceries? What about school kids who have to walk four or five blocks before they get to a ‘Priority 2’ or better road?

Over the last three years, ambulance drivers have had to be escorted by firemen on calls to ‘Priority 4’ residences so they could push the emergency-called ambulance out. Expect this to be the case again.

Two years ago I suggested that Chilliwack institute a one-time-only surcharge of $10 per taxpayer, the funds reaped to go to new equipment for plowing. I was ridiculed by city hall but praised by many ‘class two’ residents living on ‘Priority 4’ roads.

We have undergone this same trial by snow and ice four years in a row. Climate change is here, but city hall is not.

Bruce Webster