EDITOR,
After reading the most recent issue of the Chief, I am inspired to comment on two related issues.
First, being grateful forGeorge Hamilton ("Turning away the tourists," Letters, Chief, April 26) inilluminating my great joy in the gondola project allowing me access the areas of our community denied me as a person currently livingwith disability. I want to breathe that rarefied air of the high country, see the view of our community and get closer to the mountains that inspire me every day in my hometown. I say with some trepidation that Ienvy the exclusivity that the fit andable-bodied have in this part of our community.That only they should see and experience access to theheights and that thisshould be theirs aloneis how I interpret their rejection of the gondola project. I too havewandered these forests and mountains with my dogs.
The other issue is the weight room. I submitted an idea for a simple weight room in theSenior Lounge at Brennan Park to the previous council that was rejected by the Parks and Recreation Committee. I resubmitted a proposal in the OlympicRFP process for a weight room either within Brennan Park or in the newly acquired forestry building, again meeting with rejection.
In their essence these proposals were modest in space requirement and expenditure, the expressed rationale being that these proposals were actually in support of specialized local private facilities. A fitness space as I conceived it is an adjunct to the pool, providing access to a modest array of light weights,circuit training potential and the opportunity for advice on physio and program development fromon-siteknowledgeable staff. I proposed thatthe highly specific and upper-level niche market would be supplied through entrepreneurial ventures as have developed here. This is alocal heath-based activity for all agesthatshouldn't bedenied to willing andinterestedpeople due to financial barriers.Theplan to builda big4,500-square-foot fitnesscentre when we could have a modestfacility that would costa small percentage ofwhatcouncil is proposing is alsodifficult to understand in our current financial state.
Both issues relate to me directly in this stage of my life. I amhoping theapproval of the gondola projectwill allow me accessinthe mountainsI love. I also hope for the timelydevelopment ofa modest weight facilityI need to thrive in whatever physical state I'm experiencing will proceed with out further distraction.
Itrustwe willfinda reasonable resolution to these issues.
Hoping for a little humility.
Riun Blackwell
Squamish
