Dear editor:

Bonita Cawker’s recent letter regarding the Parliament Oak development demands a direct response (“Letter: No more misinformation about Parliament Oak, some of us are happy,” Sept. 3), as her claims of “misinformation” completely ignore verified municipal records and engineering realities.

While she claims that the town’s sewer system is “more than capable” and that the massive construction hole somehow saves the neighborhood from flooding, the flooded basements of Old Town residents tell a completely different story.

Shoving massive concrete structures into an area with an exceptionally high-water table physically displaces groundwater. This process systematically shifts the flooding burden onto neighboring properties and strains local creek catchments.

Furthermore, minimizing widespread community pushback as a “minority group” gloss over a deeply fractured town council where this luxury hotel project was passed on a razor-thin 5-4 vote.

This exact situation highlights why Niagara-on-the-Lake is at a critical crossroads as we approach the municipal election this October.

We cannot expect to solve our modern infrastructure deficits and over-development crises by electing the same councillors who steered us into them. To protect our community from commercial growth without accountability and preserve our unique heritage, we need a complete shift in leadership.

Unlike career politicians tied to the decisions of past councils, Vaughn Goettler is running as an independent candidate with the practical business background required to fix town governance.

His slogan, “A neighbour who listens, a leader who acts,” directly addresses the biggest frustration residents have right now: the feeling that our voices are entirely ignored by the town council while special interests get exactly what they want.

He is the only candidate pledging to serve as a truly full-time mayor whose decisions are guided strictly by community interest.

Goettler treats our severe drainage and watershed vulnerabilities as an immediate emergency that must be resolved before dense commercial footprints are permitted to further stress our town.

His platform strikes directly at the core threats facing NOTL today and in the decades to come, offering a clear framework to firmly enforce the town’s official plan and aggressively protect our local autonomy from regional amalgamation.

Let’s remind ourselves not to go from bad to worse this October.

For full disclosure, I am not attached nor actively campaigning for any mayor or councillor candidates.

Judith Barnes
Old Town