Thank you for
your request: I have lived in the Annieville area for 37
years and we raised five children here. I know the area
well and for me your questions are very easy to answer:
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The most important issues
are traffic, which includes traffic volume and traffic
speed. Your elected council must work (and that would
mean re-establishing a working relationship) with all
levels of government to make sure that the River Road
problems are resolved in the very best interest of the
neighbourhood. We don’t know yet what Gateway has in
mind, when I asked a specific question about a tunnel, I
was told that the tunnel cost would equate to the budget
for the entire South Fraser Perimeter Road project – and
they just won’t go for that. However, Delta First has
had some conversations with other engineers who are well
qualified in that area and they don’t believe the cost
would be as prohibitive. So, my answer here, I would
seek advice, other opinions and do it quickly. We
firmly believe that all infrastructures have to be in
place prior to expansion of the Port because once they
start that project – it will rapidly overtake everything
else. Personally, I will do anything I can to make sure
that River Road becomes the meandering drive it used to
be. Speed: every neighbourhood is complaining about the
excessive speed of the traffic through their
neighbourhoods. We will work with the neighbourhoods to
see what they think will work for them. It may be stop
signs, no turns, speed bumps; what ever the area thinks
will make their streets safer.
Another major
issue that I’m hearing about is safety and crime prevention,
Delta First will work closely with the police and other
emergency services to determine where the needs are, whether
we need more police, and/or better community safety
education and public awareness and quicker access to
emergency services. As Surrey cleans up, North Delta is
feeling some infiltration. And we must be mindful of that.
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Delta First is running on
a platform of Listen, Consult, Act and we mean it.
Community input is vital but then that
input has to be
put to use. It seems that you can be asked to voice your
opinion but that’s the end of it. The people of Delta have
a right to be heard, consulted and to work together to
achieve good and productive results. That’s what makes a
community feel good about itself, which is community spirit!
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Our heritage and our
environment are paramount. I was immensely pleased in
1975 when my son came home from
Annieville
Elementary saying that they had had a “pioneer” in to speak
to them that day and he had learned all about Annieville and
the fishing and the original families. We must all work
together to find a new home for the Delta Museum and
Archives that is struggling to save our heritage because
when all our “pioneers” are gone, it will be the Museum that
our children can turn to, to learn about their community. I
would also work hard to save any heritage homes and or
buildings – we have too few of them. Re our environment, I
believe that we must protect our trees, our wildlife and our
waterways. When we let any of those commodities down, we
break a very delicate chain, when the chain is broken there
is an imbalance and hence an increase in rats and a decrease
in raptors, an increase in water pollutants and decrease in
fish, an increase in undesirable plant growth and a decrease
in the trees that sustain our air quality. I will always
question anything that interferes with the quality of our
environment.
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I have volunteered and
served on executive boards for Delta wide non-profit and
sports associations for all of my 37 years in Delta.
The communities are distinct yes and I think that is
good, but in many ways they are the same. They have
grid-lock traffic, they have crime issues, and they have
environmental issues. All of Delta should have equal
access to their elected council and their opinions
elicited the same way – Delta First intends to hold
public town hall meetings on a regular basis – a Delta
First council will be out there, in the community and a
Delta First councilor will be available to meet with
neighbourhood groups, large or small to constantly and
consistently be in touch with the entire community. I
also believe that not every amenity needs to be
triplicated. This is costly and not very
“community-binding”. Did you know that Delta in the
only lower mainland community that cannot host any of
the larger provincial sports events or arts festivals?
This not only hurts our economy, it makes us feel like
we are the poor cousins of the lower mainland and we
shouldn’t feel that way. Given its natural and
geographical superiority Delta should be a leader in the
lower mainland. I believe that Delta deserves to have a
performance centre and an arena or stadium that will
serve the entire community and it should be situated in
a central location. We need to be doing more to make all
of Delta feel connected, not fractionated by geography.
Thank you Don
and Sharon for taking the time to search us out, I will look
forward to seeing the responses on your web-site. Please
edit these answers, if you think that they are too lengthy.
I’m sure that you would do so, leaving the intent of the
answer in place, - I won’t be offended!! Hope to meet you
soon. Lynn Turner