CambridgeToday received the following Letter to the Editor from concerned reader Robert Piasentini about the planned rehabilitation of a walkway in west Galt.
I just read your recent article on this walkway. The city’s decision to go ahead with this project is disappointing to say the least.
This was a bad decision when it was first put in and it continues to be a bad decision now. In politics as in life, you benefit or lose for every decision you make. In this case the tax payer paid for this bad decision the first time and now we are going to pay for it again.
Twenty years down the road we will pay to rehabilitate it again. During those years we will pay continuously to light the walkway. This much money for so little usage is what I’m against.
My interest in this walkway is because I have a dog which I walk twice a day and finding different routes around the neighbourhood helps with the monotony. I have used it many times but stopped because of the deer flies and mosquitoes in the summer. Can’t use it in the winter because its closed.
The city study claims 26 people a day use it, but how many use it to go somewhere and come back the same way which cuts the number of users down considerably. If these users are students going to Southwood SS, then no one uses it during the summer.
The bottom line is that a quarter of a million dollars for so little use is absurd. Like the city does so often, the staff studies the issue, makes a recommendation, then the councillors do the opposite. Its their M.O. In this case they doubled down and there was no opportunity to oppose the decision.
The walkway was put in before Councillor Wolf was in office, so why she feels it necessary to keep a promise she didn’t make is beyond me. What promise was made to who and why?
I have written to all the councillors and mayor about this matter and none of them responded.
Robert Piasentini
Cambridge
