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OUR READERS WRITE Pond committee's endîng unfortunate: Duignan Dear F.ditor: Re: Miii Pond Rentoration Project I wouid like to thank reporter Irene Gentie for her article in the March 31 Champion, which was fairly even-handed. However, there were a couple of issuen raîsed in the atory and at council thaf require some clarification in order 10 net the record straight. Long before ahe Miii Pond Çommittee was formed, numeroun individuain expreaacd their conccm over the dcciining state of ahe pond, many of whom cxprcssed their concem to town council- lors. PcrsonaiiyI presented Councillor Art Melanson with a set of photoa diapiaying the horrid pond conditions. These were cir- cuiatcd at council and I suppose these con- cerna were paaaed on to Town staff to address. Aiso, one citizen sent a letter to the mayor asking for action to lic taken on the Miii Pond. This letter waa pasned on to Town staff to iook into. In a rcaponding letter, staffa position was that there waa no prohiem and the Miii Pond in its pre- sent state waa a natural ecosyatem. Many citizena disagrecd and feit Uiat action muai be taken. Thia la when citizena dccided tc organize and lobby Town Hall. A committee under the auapicca of the Downtown Business Improvement Arer was formed, enlisting numerous citizen~ and experts in the fieid. Eariy on, staf joined the committcc in order to heip coor dinate the efforta of citizens, variou provinciai miniatrica. reguiatory bodie and the Town of Milton. Whiie it'n true that early meetinga cer- tainiy had their humpy moments, the com- mittee got down to work, decidcd what needcd to he donc and drew up a game plan. To their credit, Town atafi did change their viewn on the Miii Pond. Far from being a mob that aaormcd the Bantille, the Miii Pond Cornmittec was a high-caiibre hody that in hindsight wc arc lucky ro have had. The citizena on the committce included many with degreen apecificaiiy suited to the pond project. Many dollars werc naved by the voiuntary efforts of theac individuais. t wiii not liat your namea. Yoo know who you are and you didn~t doit for the puhiicity. On hehaif of the peopie of Milton, t would like to thank ail of yoai. And a cou- ple of individuala I wiil name becaune quite aimpiy they didn't have to get invoived. Andy Gemza, iniand lakea spe- cialiat for the Ministry ol Environmcnt, and Warren May of the Ministry of Natural Resources. Far fnm being anony- mous. regulatory civil servant types, Andy and Warren embraced the cause wiUi dedi- cation and enthuaiaam. r Contraay to Uic view exprenacd, Uic Miii Pond Committce worked weii. And con- trary to a view cxprcsacd at council, Uic a committec waa not reaponaibie for the e iength of aime the projece was taking. f Anyonc who attended even one meeting - couid atteat to Uic committec's dedication a to get the job donc as quickiy as poanibie. a Red tape ia red tape, and the committet had no pantin its creation. tt'n juat sud that the committee had no further nignificant mie to piay pant the tendering pmceas. It's aiso indeed unfortunate that the committee ended as le did. Hlndaight la 20-20, but in retrospect, a ahort deiay to connuit the commattee an to what staff was going to preaent to council would have likely aiiayed rnany concerna. As weil, the document preaented to councai waa ahort on detalia and contained wornaome aliowances for amendments to the original project. I realize that council in the final arbiter on auch decinionas anad I would like to thank thern for aiiowlng me to addreas nome concerna at auch a late hour. After a couple of quentiona and answera many concerna were allayed. The deep waler flsh refuge waa atili part of the project and it was confirmed that ah the pond'a nedimenta would be removed in order to eradicate the vegetation infeata- non that han been choklng the Miii Pond. That was Uic primany concern brought to council - that Uic projeca waa the name aa enviaaged by Uic committce and thcreby wouid bave Uic beat odda of auccean in lix- ing Uic Mlii Pond. John Duignan Margaret Street Rates - subject to change 5~5% I y.. 680% 6.20V. 3yrs. 7.15% 6.80% 5~yt. 7.05% 905-8274009 AMUEY PLAZA, OAKVILLE TNid Lins ai Uppor Middia ~ ~K~o C(ewdng Com~an~ Commercial & Realdentiai ~i Sprin~q~kV CIeanin~j Let us make your home sparkle. 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