All 'railed' up

To the Editor:



Re: “Step up to the Rail� (The Kings County Register, Jan. 4, 2007). On Dec. 19, I chaired in the Municipality of Kings Committee of the Whole meeting while Warden Whalen was in Halifax at meetings with the provincial government. Therefore, I feel it is incumbent upon me to respond to your mean-spirited and misleading column, “Step Up to the Rail�.

First of all, the item was put on the agenda by our staff. They had noticed some difficulties created by the rail, which separates our seats from the gallery. They sought input from the councillors. This is why each councillor in turn gave an opinion. Our staff asked us to.

Your reporter, Kirk Starratt, did an accurate job in recording these comments. I suppose we could have had a “private meeting� to discuss our working conditions, but it is our habit to discuss all issues openly unless the issue falls into a very small group permitted by the MGA.

At the Dec. 19 meeting we recognized long-term employees, had reports from two committees, got an update on our finances, heard presentations from three groups about trails and a new library, reviewed another draft of gas tax revenue expenditures, had a preliminary discussion of how to fund sidewalks, composed a motion about the crisis in the pork industry, and I could go on. Yet this is the one issue you covered.

You suggest that we were wasting valuable time on this frivolous issue. That begs the question of why you would waste almost a whole page of your valuable newspaper on it. Of all the issues in Kings County in the week since you last published an edition, is this the most legitimate or the most pressing?



Yours truly

Janet Newton

Councillor - District 2