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Dear Editor,I believe we all support the Crowsnest Pass Quad Squad and admire the work they do to make this community so special, but opening the streets to the 'Wild West' again, ain't going to cut it for the 'majority' of residents. Sorry!
What is it with Dennis Beasley and the Crowsnest Pass Quad Squad? Do they find it an inconvenience to transport their quads to the staging areas like most everyone else is willing to do?
I guess they think they should have the right to run these noisy machines on public streets and disturb everyone in every neighbourhood in the Pass as they did in the past, with no consideration for those of us who don’t want to put up with quads, dirt bikes, skidoos, and such traffic.
Except for the odd violation, it is nice to have peace and quiet on my street and they want to start it up again. I don’t think so.
This running of ATVs should never have been allowed in the first place and none of this would have come about.
Steve Liska
Friday, March 20, 2009
Quad Squad inconvenience
The following letter to the editor in this week's Crowsnest Pass Promoter from Steve Liska sums up the feelings of most people in our community of communities, I think. Kudo's to Steve!
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13 comments:
Thanks John. I've only lived in the Pass for a few months but I am totally in support of the bylaw banning off-highway vehicles in the town. I have neighbours who disregard this bylaw. The noise of their snowmobiles is most annoying, especially on a Saturday afternoon when you're trying to have a nap! LOL There's also the safety issue. I've seen people doing donuts in the intersection near my house and not just one sled, but 3. They ignore the stop sign there as well.
It seems to me the argument about the bylaw discouraging people from coming into town to snowmobile doesn't hold water. To get here they have to transport their snowmobiles anyway, so to go to a staging area isn't asking much of them. I believe it's the local people who want it changed just to make it easier for them.
Not everyone rides for recreation. Some people like to enjoy the peace and quiet of the Pass (especially after the noise of the big city).
Now if we could get the train whistles to stop....LOL
Anonymous, I think you hit the nail on the head with your last line in your second paragraph. Thanks for your comments. Feedback is good, as it 'enlightens' all of us.
Since they put in the second siding the train whistles have really increased. I, too, wish something could be done about it, but unfortunately, I don't think CPR is in a very benevolent mood considering how hostile we as a community have been towards them over the years, especially over the last 3-4 years. After you burn bridges (due to your own stupidity) it is very difficult to build them up again.
I haven't lived here long enough to know about what happened with CPR.
Several years back when I was on council, one of my board appointments was as Vice-Chair of the Subdivision Development Authority. In this role, I and the rest of the board at that time, spent countless hours in conjunction with other players in developing a Municipal Development Plan for our community. This plan laid out how we as a community planned to manage and direct growth and development in the Municipality of Crowsnest Pass in a manner that minimized the adverse impacts on adjacent activities and made the best possible use of the land base and infrastructure in the municipality, with consideration to its environmental impact in this sensitive region.
Literally, at the eleventh hour, our current mayor allowed Fred Bradley and Jim Prentice and the landowners they represented, to bastardize our plan, in order to make it less ‘restrictive‘ for future development. Including ‘removing’ the section designating the wetlands area around where the second siding is now, as an 'environmentally sensitive area', which would have prevented CPR from building where they did.
Having left the gates open for CPR to develop and realizing their mistake, council at the time went on a ‘vicious’ propaganda mission to paint the CPR with a black brush, and themselves as the community’s white knights, with much success. But not in the area of preventing CPR from putting in the second siding where they did.
The resulting increase in railway traffic and noise is a ‘direct result’ of that decision by this mayor and the majority of council at the time. Moi, being the exception.
Ah, so that explains the 4 trains in 40 minutes the other night between 1 and 1:40. I couldn't get to sleep to begin with ...LOL
Not seeing one single comment giving a positive note to atv's in a rural mountain town, I doubt this will be posted and most likely will be deleted. But if you have the democratic spirit John, here it goes. In case no one noticed the responsible riders keep being responsible and the miscreants keep making problems. My neighborhood has had idiots riding unmuffled racing dirt bikes unresponsibly for years and years and guess what? The unregistered and uninsured forestry illegal dirt bikes are still around being idiots annoying myself and everyone else. Its great to punish everyone because local law enforcement did such a bad job catching the ones ALREADY BREAKING EXISTING LAWS driving like idiots on the streets. This law gave talking points to the citizens who already hated atv's. Now just starting an ATV behind your house in the Pass gets curtains opening and calls being made. Natzi Germany would be proud. A few smug ATV haters who must of enjoyed telling others what to do as children have blackened the pot. The biggest joke about this whole thing is that the Pass has definitely shot itself in the foot. The reviews from ATV shows and magazines were all about how ATV friendly the Pass WAS. It was the start of a real trend a few years ago. That always gave me a smile and perhaps hope that a new economic opportunity that didn't have anything to do with real estate bubbles could help create good healthy jobs for my local community. Not a peep now, believe me I have been in the ATV community for years. In this sinking economy perhaps those selfish individuals who only hear the low hum of my small 450, sound muffled forestry legal insured and licensed four stroke motor, as I slowly and carefully ride into the forestry two blocks away(such a criminal!) don't seem to hear the 1200cc harleys breaking the sound barrier and going through stop signs almost every day in the summer. I am certain the same people would ban little children yelling in their back yards and playing hide and seek in the neighborhood, so as not to disturb their most important naps. Don't worry about others who depend on hotels, restaurants, campgrounds, stores and gas stations to make their living. As long as you can have your way, who cares about the local economy going down the crapper. Who cares about the Pass getting the reputation as unhospitable to outsiders. We need to put those out of towners with all their tourism dollars in their proper place after all. So I will respond to the comments after this, pre-emptively and as mature and well thought out as possible...Your not the boss of me!
I have a new respect for you posting my last comment my friend. In retrospect I will write a few more thoughts. There are definite grievances towards ATV usage on the streets of the Pass, as I already admitted. But wouldn't it be great if an actual way to figure out how to benefit the community whilst balancing reasonable and rational use of the streets. Some towns in Ontario and Quebec use ATV's as a HUGE cash cow. They have trail systems that link their towns and allow ATV's on most streets, which also park in front of restaurants, gas stations, stores, hotels, car washes, map sellers, trail guiding businesses and such. If I had more time I would cite references. As a matter of fact certain restaurants and other businesses in the smaller communites completely depend on ATV tourism for their living, it is that big. How can we do this? For the first time ever the Province of Alberta has supplanted both Quebec and Ontario in overall ATV sales. Thats AMAZING considering our population difference and poignant info. to the Crowsnest Pass. People...get your heads together and help each other. There is money in this like you wouldn't believe. With the largest and wealthiest population in Alberta 2hrs away, this is a slam dunk. I have some ideas, but would like to see the people and the town council take this issue on more of an economic stage than as a sole grievance issue. Until the personalities of opposition on both sides realize the real truth of this, we will be stuck poking sticks at each other. Which I must admit really gets no one anywhere. But lets face reality, there are many people in the Crowsnest Pass that just want to keep everyone out as long as they can. Which also guarantees the future of the young to leave this community or stay, scraping out a living, unless you are one of the lucky (if being a miner is lucky) at the mines. One last thought... The amount of normal traffic on local town roads breaking laws and abusing the respect of their community is enormous. My own block has extreme abuse cases of drivers waking people at all hours of the night. Perhaps the ATV's that abused their rights to drive on local roads was the straw that broke the camels back for many. Ironically I found myself cursing at other ATV'ers while riding out of town on my own ATV, when they passed me doing 45mph in town. I knew what was coming as a result of those idiots. Now I am made into the scoflaw scumbag as I slowly and carefully ride my ATV two blocks into the forest. I can't help but chuckle. I wonder who curses at me?
Anon @10:11 & 4:17
Thank you for your comments and believe it or not I'm for a lot of what you say, because it makes sense. Education, enforcement (with hefty fines for violators) by not just the Bylaw officer and local police but by ordinary citizens as well (give everyone a paintgun and lets tag the miscreants :-)), and just plain common sense and using your head and having consideration for others is what is needed here. Although, as Will Rogers once said, "common sense ain't so common these days".
I believe a discussion on this topic needs to take place and in this regard I will do a post shortly to see if we can get a debate going on on this blog that can eventually lead to a 'common sense' revolution with respect to ATV use while looking at tapping into the enormous economic potential to our community, and at the same time giving people back their rights to continue ejoying 'Mountain Freedom' as their mothers and fathers have before them.
Yes common sense and mutual respect gets you a long way, most of the time. Sometimes you bang your head on that wall and it stays a wall. But what the hell, I have enjoyed this stage of yours to air my mind. Being in this community and having family here for a good long time gives you insight on many things. I try not to dwell on the negative sides of this community, because there are many. But boy oh boy could this place be made into something really special. It isn't yet. The mountains and trees are very special, the community...ahem. I hope it gets there someday. Maybe you can help it. Closed minded self centered SELF SERVING jerks have ruined this area for a long time. Now we also have the retired and weekender crowd that, for the most part, are also self serving to their own interests. I am not sure this community will survive all the change for the better. What future for children here? Something only people who actually care about the community even think about. I just finished a long tormenting comment on your latest blog about ATV's. Thinking about your blog I don't know if many ATV people read it. If they do I would imagine you get comments from some locals that are not so worthy to post. I hear these one worded comments all the time when talking about the ATV issue with fellow off-roaders who perhaps are not very eloquent in speach. Most of them mean well, some do not. I do hope in the future that this gets worked out to the benefit of the community and doesn't turn into such a battle. I realize driving my quad into the forest two blocks away bothers some people. But I also realize they are the same people that swear at my kids when they "play" too loud in the back yard. They are also the same people that get mad when I chop wood too loud for my fireplace. I would imagine they are the same people that get mad if you even harvest dead lumber for firewood, there are many. Or perhaps they are the same people that don't like where people pile their snow in the wintertime, name your poison. How the world has changed. I value my freedoms dearly while realizing balance is necessary. But at some point, where do you draw that line that says...I stand here. I will not put my ATV in a trailer to drive two blocks away and unload it again, while worrying about my truck and trailer unit being parked in an unwatched area the whole time I am quading. Thats all there is to it. Riding my ATV in the woods is one of the many benefits to living in a rural mountain town, along with clean air and wonderfully clean water. Can't take the fam to the mall here. Can't take the fam to the indoor swimming pool. Can't take the fam to the science center. Can't take the fam to costco. Man I need to stop.
I have gained respect for you through this communication channel and wish you all the best in the future. I hope you can break some of the old guard walls down in this community. God knows we need it.
Anon @4:25
Again, thank you for your comments.
For those interested in a follow up to this post...
http://blog.johnprince.ca/2010/05/mountain-freedom-quadding-or-atv.html
What I'm reading is the typical long winded blather by ATV zealots defending very noisy hobby.
The typical ATV operator continually over revs his machine and has a "the world is my urinal" attitude. You don't have to be cerebral to realize that.
We snowmobile and atv riders need to wake up to the fact that not everyone likes to hear the machines or see the smoke. It's a different era than it was 20 years ago, when a few people's complaints only went so far. Now how many people have their opinions voiced that reaches 1000's on a blog like this?
Start showing some respect before you lose all your rights.
Also, make an example of those who don't show respect. What if you took away snowmobiles from those riding in town for the rest of the winter?
Wow I haven't been here for a while. I did take a good look around the Pass last week. As the economy sinks and people still poke sticks at each other over childish arguments. Yes I love to sit on my ATV and gun it all day whilst urinating on my neighbor. Glad you made that remark, it only makes my point more "cerebral". Once again to clear this up. People in the Pass need to look at some of the towns in Quebec and Ontario who make a wonderful living from ATV enthusiasts utilizing the back country and the ATV FRIENDLY TOWNS. The citizens and the town profit greatly from their well thought out endeavors. But NO, the Pass is willing to go under and get no benefits for the sake of a few crotchety old men who probably haven't been out of their house in months. To the start showing some respect guy...start growing a pair. Do you always do what you are told? I am hurting no one, my machine doesn't smoke and is quieter than my neighbors truck by a long margin. I will keep driving two blocks into the forestry and you can go tell the pricipal. Maybe you can pass a law to take things from people when they don't do what you say. Geesh...And by the way, things have changed greatly in 20yrs...far fewer two strokes and more quiet fours with friendly faces smiling at you like me!
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