Both Slater and Osoyoos Now deserve credit for meeting
Osoyoos Mayor John Slater deserves a lot of credit for attending the recent meeting of Osoyoos Now.
The organization, which came to life out of a frustration with the current direction Osoyoos has taken, invited the mayor to attend to give people an opportunity to ask questions directly to one of the key people setting that current direction.
And while people may not have liked all of Slater's answers, he deserves credit for having the courage to step in front of 250 people, most of whom disagree with the decisions being made by the town council that Slater leads.
It couldn't have been easy.
There are some very controversial and tough issues facing this community right now. Issues that are very divisive and yet very, very important to the future of this community.
These are issues that need to be dealt with, and that is also why Osoyoos Now deserves credit for inviting the mayor and being willing to listen to his answers.
Like it or not people in this community have become divided over how Osoyoos should develop, both in terms of where and how fast. Which means that open, honest discussion right now is even more important than ever if we truly want what is best for Osoyoos.
Development is necessary, everyone agrees on that. However, the issue of controlled or planned development continues to be talked about, and yet there doesn't seem to be any real concept of what exactly that means.
That plan (call it whatever you want) is critical and needs to have the entire community involved in it, and hopefully a meeting such as the recent Osoyoos Now one will serve to stimulate an environment of communication and compromise.
