District's growth no surprise

Re. Extent of growth unforeseen (Castanet, Jan. 18)

First of all, thank you to our newly elected (Lake Country) mayor and council for taking on the job of helping our growing community to navigate its future, a job most in our community would not want, including me.

I’m sure it’s challenging taking the reins and the ongoing issues from the previous long standing mayor and council.

If community members are truly concerned with where their tax dollars are going, with what is being done about issues and with what is happening in our community, I might suggest getting on the District of Lake Country email list as a start and making yourselves more aware by asking the district questions.

It’s easy to get on a rant Facebook page where you’ll get all kinds of comments from others who have not educated themselves to the facts. That method most often does not provide the answers you are seeking.

It’s actually quite easy (in my experience) to call the district with your questions and have a good conversation with someone. We all have incredibly busy lives but there’s no sense spinning your wheels on Facebook and wasting your time getting nowhere with Lake Country issues or questions. If you prefer Facebook, the District of Lake Country has a Facebook page. You can subscribe, follow, be informed and even message the district with questions.

As to the article and statement that the rate of growth in our community comes as a surprise, surely the district can’t expect us to believe that?

My family has lived here for 10 years. When we were looking to buy our home here, it was already considered to be the fastest growing community in B.C. It has had that distinction for many years. If you add to that the amount of new development the district has approved in just the past 10 years, no one could be surprised by the fact we’ve topped 15,000 population in our community.

Look at the massive Lake Stone development, as well as the ever-expanding Lakes development. The population was already at 13,000 in 2013.

Many in the community have been frustrated by the seeming lack of progress on issues like road maintenance and renewal, policing amidst increasing crime, clean healthy drinking water for all, schools at capacity, too much development too fast without matching an increase in infrastructure, being charged more in taxes for a sewer system that is at capacity while at least 70% of residents are on their own septic systems, drawing new business and local jobs to Main Street, and more.

We all understand that with growth comes growing pains and increased costs, but there is increased tax revenue that comes with the increase in population from these large developments.

Rebecca Thiessen, Lake Country