To the Editor,
Re: Council had its reasons for opposing Telus plan, Letters, March 11.
This time last year city councillors were all about safety and spending whatever was needed to make the city safe from the unlikelihood that the Colliery dams would fail. They were willing to spend millions of taxpayer dollars in the name of safety. When the plan to remove the dam was put on hold, they installed warning signs and a siren system to ensure the safety of south Nanaimo residents.
This year it seems that safety is no longer the driving force but riparian (riverside) value alone is. Environmental sustainability may be very nice but what about the safety of residents in the event of an emergency if the land-line phone system went down?
Over 80 per cent of adults and many children use cell phones every day for communication and safety reasons.
By opposing Telus’s plan to install a cellular tower at no cost to the city, council has reduced the level of safety for those residents that the rest of us enjoy.
I hope the city will put warning signage in the cellphone dead zones to warns us of the danger of no cellphone communication in case of an emergency in this area.
Terry WagstaffNanaimo
To the Editor,
Re: Residents need new cell tower, Editorial, March 6.
Council changed its view and disallowed giving Telus the green light to build a new antenna on Hammond Bay Road simply because a small group of whiny homeowners did not want to look at it, nothing more. Health hazards or environmental concerns were a smokescreen.
In that area of Nanaimo, drivers and residents alike continue to have a dead zone for cell service.
Unfortunately we will only have to wait now for the day someone gets hurt, cannot get a signal and cannot call emergency services. Then, I’m coming to look for those councillors and residents who did not give a damn about looking towards the future and doing something that would have helped out in advance.
Kevan ShawNanaimo