‘Call your mayor, your councillor and have your say today,’ says letter writer

Bradford Today
Letter to the Editor
September 16, 2023

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With dismay and sadness, I read the letters from these two gentlemen.

Have either of you gentlemen read a book to your children or grandchildren, snuggled up on the chesterfield or sitting under a tree outside in the sunlight, and you just finished the book and they ask, “Please, read it again?” I want them to realize how important it is to enjoy a book. Someday those will be treasured memories.

We may live in a digital world, but not everyone embraces it. Not everyone walks down the street with the phone glued to their ear with their children tagging along behind. (Really a sad sight.)

I don’t want to read a book on an iPad or computer. I like to hold it and enjoy it. And health-wise it is much better.

Libraries have been around since biblical days and I am certain they will be around for years to come. They are a place where books can be borrowed to read and enjoy. They are a place where people come to study. Just this week, two of our young students wrote an excellent letter to the editor asking that “their” library be opened. They say how, after COVID, they have been encouraged not to spend so much time on their screens.

If we go by what these two men say, we will do everything online, even if we have to go to a fish and chips store to do so. I have never heard anything so ridiculous. We would hope that the people who are running our town council would have more sense. Taxpayers, remember this when the next election comes around. Not all our councillors feel this way. Some want the library open now, but unless they get a majority vote, they will not be able to carry a motion.

As to the fish and chips store, as a business woman in town, I know how hard it is to run a business and I am sure these businesses do not want their tables taken up by students using their space to do work that should be done either at home or at the library. Most businesses want paying customers to help them survive.

Remember, Bradford citizens, we are the taxpayers. We pay the salaries of the mayor, the councillors, the CEO and staff at the library. Remember that when the next election comes along.

Call your mayor, your councillor and have your say today. Don’t put it off until tomorrow. They need to hear from us now. Join us on Tuesday, Sept. 19 at the old Bradford arena at 6 p.m. and proceed upstairs to the council meeting afterwards. Show your support.

Three years is a short time, so remember when the next election comes along and be careful who you vote for. We had eight years of a council working together under Mayor Keffer, who ran the council as a gentleman. Now all we have is chaos.

Nancy Young
Bradford

https://www.bradfordtoday.ca/letters-to-the-editor/letter-remember-library-strike-when-election-time-comes-7549349