Editor:

Regarding the proposed sewer, my house is in the village core, and will, prayers notwithstanding, likely end up in the specified area for this project. Looking around, I see my neighbours are mostly retired people, young families and home businesses. Not many of us can easily afford to bear the cost of hookups, user fees and all the downstream charges that our residential properties will be locked into if this plan goes ahead. Frankly, my septic field is new, and works perfectly, and I am being offered no reason to support this expensive concept. Maybe it will benefit somebody, but I can see no incentive for home owners in this neighbourhood to foot the bill.

Clearly Sooke needs the seniors’ complex, and the soil around here provides a pretty pitiful perc profile (smile) but there are innovative technologies being successfully used in other places ... combinations of treatment plants, conservation grey water recycling and above ground disposal, if only the CRD Health regulations would permit them. As far as a Laundromat goes, clean tourists are nice, but the cost of that service is between them and the Laundromat operator.

If we are going to spend the big bucks, how about starting with traffic problems, which are a pain in the butt to all of us, every day! The recent traffic plan looks sensible, credit to the council and their consultant, so to me, starting with the sewer seems quite backward, as it will bring new development, and compound the existing vehicle mess in the downtown sector. And tourists ... well do we really want somebody to remember Sooke as the place where they almost got pegged by a gravel truck, while driving the Winnebago out of the beer store? Clean clothes or not, it will be quite a story.

Assuming there is only one pit of grant money available from senior governments, and Sooke blows its grant opportunity on the sewer, how long will we have to live with the traffic problem until our turn comes up again? I’m sure council has good reasons for setting their priorities in this fashion, but from the information that has been given out I don’t understand the logic.