“It won’t do any good,” is the message left for him by residents, Terry Vulcano said when he asks why they don’t write to City of Vernon council about a concern.
“It turns out they were right. It won’t do any good. Having written more than half-a-dozen letters and emails directly to Vernon city councillors on matters such as safety, planning, parking meters, cycling on sidewalks, getting out of Polson Mall, fast swimmers in the slow lane, I understand what they mean,” Vulcano said.
“The letters about safety never get acknowledged. On letters about planning or economic development matters, they get forwarded to the relevant departments but seem to disappear into a mist of irrelevancy.”
Vulcano said the only time he saw action occur was when, in a letter about lack of shade planning for parking lots, he mentioned that there were nice shade trees at the WalMart Parking lot. Vulcano said those trees were later removed.
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Vulcano said he does not like the way things are and, as a result, has put his name forward to run as a councillor.
His major concerns are lack of responsiveness on issues, safety, and lack of reporting on what happens at meetings.
“Perhaps if the administration was more responsive to concerns, safety would not be such an issue,” Vulcano said.
“We have safety issues at the low level with cyclists allowed on sidewalks and children allowed to run at the swimming pool to crime levels garnishing Vernon a rating of third worst in British Columbia. When the little things are overlooked, then criminals recognize that they have found a good place to vandalize, steal and cause harm in the community.”
Vulcano has been going door-to-door with pamphlets, brochures or business cards. In addition to getting in 12,000 paces an outing, he said it gives him chances to see what the various neighbourhoods are like, where the buses run and the beautiful vista scenes.
“Two themes I have been hearing is inadequate snow removal and not wanting to be big like Kelowna,” he said.
“I get to about 250 places a day. With about twenty days of visiting communities that means I can attend to nearly 5,000 households.”
Vulcano’s platform is available online at www.tvulcano.com.
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