Dear council, we hope that wasn’t our last chance to comment

Dear Councillors and Staff:
July 15, 2024 was the last scheduled day of public comment on the Town Plan.
We do hope there are more opportunities down the road to contribute before the Town Plan is approved by Council.
This process was started in 2019 under the previous Council, paused by Covid, and started up again in June of 2024.
While interest and input from the people, as we understand it, has been minimal most will not even know the process is even happening during the summer/holiday season.
As two individuals with a long-time concern for the environmental issues affecting our planet we can only focus on more local issues that can help maintain a healthy community.
We attend meetings to voice our concerns on the impact of development on our waterways and comment on infrastructure issues as they arise. We appreciated being able to meet in Council Chambers last year to voice our concerns on the pollution in our rivers from problem lift stations.
We have great issue with backload development and have suggested that the Commissioners Report from 2015 on that issue be placed on the Town’s website, along with the 2021 Sanitary Sewer Study. We have had breakdowns in our relatively new water system as noted in a report on the Town’s website. We need to understand the Town’s development capacity more clearly.
We have suggested that the Town create an environmental policy and the first step of an Environmental Statement is a commendable move towards that, but much more needs to be done.
We have suggested that a senior staff member be appointed to advise council on environmental impacts, but to date nothing has even been considered. It is surprising that the Town of CBS has not joined the Stewardship Association of Municipalities. An Environmental Committee for the province’s second largest community is non-existent.
As one of the crunchy granola, rubber boot gang we are in many cases looked upon with daunting stares. It is never easy, and it is very frustrating when no one seems to listen and no one even seems to care.
So, we can only ask each of you again to consider carefully the planned amendments to the 2011-2021 Town Plan and consider taking the steps necessary to ensure “A Bright Town, A Bright Future.”
We do hope that some of you will respond to this letter, if only to ensure that it was read and perhaps considered in your deliberations and discussions in Council and with Council staff.
Thank you,
Karen Morris
and Neil Penney
Kelligrews, CBS