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Letter: Rat solution for West Kelowna city hall

Would not this neighbourhood, as a whole, be working together toward a viable plan of attack [to eradicate the rats]?

To the editor:

It is my understanding that most neighbourhoods have a rodent problem. The West Kelowna city hall portable is not unique.

The quickest solution would be to trap the beasts and to remove this portable and replace it with a newer model. The community around the city hall must also be experiencing a similar infestation so would not this neighbourhood, as a whole, be working together toward a viable plan of attack? The rodents are not going to leave the community just because the city hall moves away.

As for using the city-owned property in the industrial area [for a new city hall], I believe the intent was to move city services like the public works yard to such an area and repurpose city-owned lands in the central portion of Westbank's business corridor for a new city hall at a much lower financial burden to taxpayers.

Premier Christy Clark talks of going 'greener,' including greener public buildings. Has West Kelowna mayor and council taken into account the extra costs to meet these greener standards in their elaborate plans (which I hear include a staff fitness gym?) for the new city hall and civic centre? Will taxpayers be told after the referendum vote of these extra costs?

I've read that the proposed new West Kelowna city hall development could be approximately an extra 34 per cent larger than needed to accommodate any future expansion as West Kelowna grows. This need for additional extra space makes me wonder if those responsible for the operating practices/procedures at our city hall are using old fashioned and outdated business methodologies. This puzzles me as the current trend moving forward in business is to reduce our environmental footprint. Have they not embraced digital technologies (example iCloud document storage or Open Source software programs) which, in connection with portable digital devices (laptops, tablets and smartphones), would reduce the need for large expansions of physical real estate. Physical space requirements can be minimized with the scanning of documents and the use of online forms reducing the need for multiple paper copies and the sharing of fewer desks/offices.

West Kelowna should be looking at reducing their environmental footprint.

T. Tuck, West Kelowna