Could you please explain, Svend Serup, how a pool in the Hart would be first choice over a pool in College Heights ?
Also explain how Foothills, that takes you pretty much directly to the Prince George Aquatic Centre, is a long drive as you are leading us to believe.
The taxes the city collects from residents and commercial businesses heading south and south/west of Prince George is millions of dollars more than collected from the tax base of the Hart.
Prince George's growth is heading south and west directions with high price home subdivisions migrating along the west side of the Fraser River heading south.
Also a bridge crossing from the BCR side that would link up with Domano Boulevard will then eliminate the bottle neck at the Highway 16 and 97 intersection, opening upfurther growth in south westerly directions.
This petition has no merit simply because the people's addresses were not included at the very least. Alarming it should be that city councillors Garth Frizzell, Murry Krause and Albert Koehler accept such a vague petition and for them to say this is a very strong mandate to build a pool in the Hart is ludicrous talk. This should raise a red flag about voting for any one of them this fall. You three have shown a very unacceptable path forward and its proof now to the general public that you don't understand the big picture in this town.Your decisions would bankrupt a lot of folks with your unschooled, elaborate spending ideas.
And to Mayor Lyn Hall, this is the second serious mistake you've made in as many months.
We don't have a big box Cabela's sporting goods store being built here now because you thought a housing complex would be more appropriate.That acreage had big box interest because of its location. You didn't have an intelligent answer to give Svend Serup either, only that it's too late now which is way off the truth because a pool in the Hart is inconceivable within the next decade,but yes a possibility when their is a higher population count north of the Nechako River that has the tax base to afford it.
Coun. Frizzell, could you explain to all of us how changing course on a $35 million plus interest amounting to about $70 million plus when finally paid for downtown pool would be "difficult if not impossible" to change the course of when the vote had just been completed ?
Also to Coun. Krause, how do you offer congratulations for the people's activism when this petition is so full of holes ?
My residence is in the Crescents and a new pool would be nice but not,simplybecause its the wrong location for a pool.
In closing, what was the revenue for the last five years at the Four Seasons Pool?In other words, was there a business plan developed for this downtown pool? The answer is no because if so we would have heard about it from the beginning.Spend $70 million-plus on something that has no business plan to gauge its success by.You don't need to go to the school of hard knocks to know that this pool will be under utilized at this site.
Move it overto the YMCA, where it's at tried and true for people and family bonding. Our local YMCA is where a new pool will get the most enjoyment and its ground zero for sporting and physical fitness.
Miles C. Thomas
Prince George
