Dear Editor,

I am one of around 20 residents in a block limited by Chelsea Crescent, Arner Town Line and Heritage Road. We have deeded access to the small Chelsea Park, which is currently a grassed area with a beach. Dog walkers use it year-round, and almost everyone uses it in the good weather. As older owners move out and younger families take over, it is great to see youngsters using the park too.

The park has had no upgrades, it has no equipment nor has it had landscaping or storm protection; its cost to Kingsville has been negligible.

Three weeks ago the Town sent a letter to some of us requesting we surrender that access and requiring an answer by February 20. The recipients were each offered $2,500 for doing so.

This was the first anyone had heard of any intended change and no reason was given, nor was any information supplied about the park’s future. Word leaked out that the decision was solely financial: Kingsville wanted to sell the land.

All neighbours I have spoken with plan to reject the offer, but we wonder what Kingsville might do in the future to deprive us of the park. A few of us will speak on the matter to the council at the meeting on the 23rd.

Coincidentally, our interim tax bill arrived yesterday. I shows the bill for my 1355 square feet bungalow will be around $4400 this year. Although this is a separate issue it illustrates something about the council’s thinking: we have NO streetlights or sidewalks around here, and an unimproved park that the town wants to take away, yet we pay far higher taxes here than others in the main part of town.

Taken all together, it does rather smack of arrogance and a lack of respect for us ratepayers, doesn’t it? Such a strange way to do things in an election year.

Geoff Fitzgibbon
Kingsville, Ontario