Editor:
I have read with interest and some dismay letters to The Echo from my friend and neighbour Bill Franks. While there a number of issues on which he and I would disagree, the most significant are these:
He has stated that several deputations against providing a development permit for 26/27 Sideroad were led by non-residents. While I have no knowledge how many deputations were led by non-residents, I think Bill loses sight of the fact that non-residents do not lose the right to speak their minds on matters that affect them because they are non-residents. They get no discount on their municipal taxes because they are non-residents. As a resident, I respect that right.
He offers no reason why County Road 91 west of the 10th Concession north ought not to remain open to all traffic as long as it remains open as a haul route or even until the new quarry is mined out and both quarries have become lakes.
In his most recent letter he writes that it is disrespectful of the NEC not accept the recommendations of its staff. Rather than being disrespectful, I feel that the members of the NEC were doing as we would expect them to do; that is to think for themselves and to exercise their own judgment. That is what we, the taxpayers, should expect of them.
While I don’t believe respect is relevant to the quasi-judicial process per se, would not Bill agree that if, as he contends, the NEC was disrespectful in this instance, the joint board of the OMB was disrespectful of both the NEC and its staff in overturning the original decision of the NEC in effect, refusing approval for the development of the new quarry. He can’t have it both ways!
Tony Hendrie,
Duntroon.