Dear Editor:

Thank you for addressing this matter in your May 22nd issue. I would like to clarify a couple of things.

Columere Park Community Association (CPCA) has nearly 95 per cent of the residents paying their dues. We have two main assets here to keep up the tennis courts and the beach.The amount of money both in the CPCA coffers and collected via dues each year ought to be adequate to deal with these assets. What ought not to be any part of the CPCA expenses is access to the private enterprise marina for the boat owners. Other communities such as Spirits Reach also have an agreement with the marina owners to access this marina, and still other local marinas are funded by the people who use them. Rather than harassing the roughly 20 people in here who do not pay the CPCAs increasingly higher dues and do not use the beach (some are in their 70s and 80s and have various health issues) the CPCA should stop expecting them to subsidize boat owners and make the marina a strictly user-paid facility. CPCA certainly pays a percentage of the motorized crossing insurance and I believe some money toward the marina gate, and wants to add fences, lighting, security and cameras etc. No marina expenses should be paid by CPCA.

The long-time and senior members of this community have a large investment in Columere Park. We have all contributed over decades to what is here for the current residents to enjoy.

I find the lack of respect and casual dismissal of our requests and input to be dismaying , but must also explain that we can not and do not lump all Columere Park residents together in either side of this question. I speak on behalf of the people who are finding the CPCA boards behaviour intolerable, not the ones who feel they are correct in their actions. It must be noted that 80 per cent of the 254 properties in Columere Park are owned as recreational properties. Demographics have changed in the nearly four decades Ive lived here, but I truly regret that the CPCAs actions have divided this community to this extent and I see no need for the RDEK to be used by the CPCA as a collection agency.

Thank you for hearing me out!

Elisabeth Noel,

Columere Park