Midland Today welcomes letters to the editor. They can be sent to [email protected]. Please include your daytime phone number and address (for verification of authorship, not publication).
It seems that very soon, thanks to the inflatable water park proposed by Waterfront Recreation Specialists and approved by our town council, Little Lake will have its own lake monster to rival Ogopogo on Lake Okanagan and Kempenfelt Kelly on Lake Simcoe. How many single-use drinking straws and shopping bags will Midland citizens need to forego to make up for this plastic atrocity?
This development has been approved with alarming haste compared to the heel dragging from council when it comes to responding to citizens’ requests for a town-built splash pad in the park, an amenity that smaller communities like Penetanguishene and Port Severn have already been able to provide. A citizen’s fundraising group supporting a splash pad in Little Lake was formed in 2012. Council approved the idea in principle in 2015.
And yet here it is 2020, and, despite the efforts of town councillor Bill Gordon, still no splash pad in Little Lake. Meanwhile a private developer waltzes in and almost immediately gets his for profit project approved. It could be interpreted that Midland has sold a piece of Little Lake for $30,000, with no down payment and utilities included. A very good price for prime waterfront property.
I strongly believe that 'Pay for Play' facilities do not belong in publicly owned and maintained parks. If recreation facilities are to be provided they should be free or have affordable user fees that make them available to all of our town’s citizens, not just the tourists. Penetanguishene and Port Severn children enjoy their free splash pads while Midland children are expected to pay upwards of $25 each to have fun in the water. Good luck with that. My grandchildren and I will probably just go to Penetang.
This proposal seems to have been sprung on local citizens without much notice, although the proposal was mentioned in the recent Parks and Trails Master Plan drawn up by consultants. To quote from the document: "Given the growing popularity of floating playgrounds there needs to be some discussion and development of a town policy on whether to support this type of recreation as well as other revenue generating public/private partnerships." The consultants in their report basically admit that they were not very successful in consulting with the general public. And it would seem that the council have only been interested in having this discussion among themselves and their staff.
Those who do not support such private/public for profit partnerships in our parks should be warned that the Master Plan also states “that at least one company has approached the Town of Midland to investigate the potential for a business partnership with the Town to allow for a water cable park at Little Lake.” The footprint of the floating playground at present may be small but will the enticement of developers' dollars yet entice the Council to create "Midland’s Wonderland" at Little Lake.
I am,of course, very concerned about the environmental implications of the current proposal. I don’t know what these will be. But then again, neither does our town council, since no environmental impact studies were done before approving the project.
Town parks are not just places for humans to play. They are important green spaces that contribute to the biodiversity of the planet. Our children go to the parks to play. Nature’s children depend on the parks for their very existence. I will miss my dragonfly and butterfly friends who used to live along the shoreline that has been given over to this "Little Lake Monster."
Ken MacDonald
Midland
