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Letter: Enough is enough at the council table

Reader Dave Milton said he is tired of the antics of some Grand Forks city councillors.

Editor, the Gazette

Another open letter to Mayor Frank Konrad.

The recent Gazette report of the tactic of Couns. Butler and Tripp to exit chambers during a council meeting — thereby depriving council of a quorum by which to conduct itself in a democratic manner — was likely a step too far in the continued debacle masquerading as running our home place in an orderly fashion.

Coun. Butler’s bleating about the rigours of being a poverty-stricken single mother with children to feed, is no different from quite a lot of other people in similar straits and certainly does not warrant universality in the application of water rates. Universality means that the car- and driveway-washers, the grow-ops, the midnight sprinklers and sundry other cheats, will be paying the same rate as those of us who work hard to conserve this very precious commodity: Like both natural gas and gas for the car, the clothes and food we buy, hydro and other consumer goods, we should simply paying for our personal water consumptions. It is as simple and as fair as that and it’s why we wanted water meters installed in the first place.

Both Tripp and Butler are, I believe, quite mischievously on the wrong side of the fence on this matter and depriving Council of a quorum was a nasty ploy. Shame on them.

Your Worship, should you feel that their antics, and the bullying matter, are fast becoming beyond the reasonable scope of municipal management, you have the option to call upon a higher authority - that of the provincial Ministry of Municipal Affairs - to lend a hand. I will support that measure.

Dave Milton

Grand Forks