To the Editor,
Re: Don’t waste taxes on doom highway, Letters, May 13.
Since Jen Fisher-Bradley sees “golden opportunities ... ahead for savvy entrepreneurs” for “a twice daily, foot-passenger and truck ferry... between Port Alberni and Ucluelet,” my suggestion is that the Fisher-Bradley Steamship Company be formed with Mayor McRae on its board of directors.
And the perfect ferry for the job is now moored rent free at a port authority dock. What a golden opportunity for the authority to rid itself of a liability, construct and get income from two new docks, and put the fiasco of the Clutesi Haven development behind it.
Some naysayers point out that the MV Frances Barkley takes about five hours to travel from Port Alberni to Ucluelet one way, but I have every confidence that the old BC Ferries vessel docked here can reach a speed of 18 to 19 knots, thereby shortening the trip-time significantly.
Full speed ahead, I say.
Meanwhile, there are many citizens who think the first priority for Highway 4 road improvement is the stretch between here and Oceanside. That stretch around the rock bluffs at Cameron Lake requires yearly maintenance and the idea of coal trucks travelling that route and through Cathedral Grove is dangerous and absurd.
What we need now is a new road into the Alberni Valley and the improvement of the Cameron Main road (the road to the old ski hill) as an alternate route for some truck traffic.
Richard Berg,
Port Alberni