Dear editor:

Ross’s Ramblings (“An extremely busy weekend in our wee town,” Aug. 15) sound more like rumblings and again, as a resident of George Manor, I feel obliged to enlighten him.

Residents often choose to live in a gated community because they can no longer physically manage to maintain a pleasant living space and have elected to pay for their real estate to be looked after by professionals.

Our average homeowners do not regard our street as being exclusionary or pretentious but simply because we cannot rely on the town to enforce parking restrictions, we must have some semblance of order.

Motorist still drive on our private road despite the signs and occasionally attempt to park in our area allocated for visitor parking without giving a thought about the fact that we must maintain it and keep it in good order.

Even the lampposts that line the street are our community’s responsibility. We pay for their maintenance, including the light they provide.

We must also keep our road clean and pay a private company to plow George Manor in the winter. We must have the sewers along the street cleaned regularly and maintain the greenery at each end of George Manor.

Thanks to our accommodating neighbours at both ends of the street, we have managed to agree on an arrangement that benefits everyone.

Whatever aspirations I had for Ross when he first talked about the exclusionary nature of George Manor, have melted with the snow.

I now see that Ross chooses to see only the surface and fails to dig deeper. Our patron saint he is not.

But, if he thinks he can convince the Town of Niagara-on-the-Lake to take over our street, my February 2023 offer of erecting a statue of him at the entrance to George Manor still stands.

Norman Paraschuk
NOTL