Dear editor:

I totally support your July 7 editorial, “NOTL needs to go back to the drawing board with bylaws and enforcement,” as I am waging my own battle with Niagara-on-the-Lake, having experienced identical issues with bylaw enforcement and temporary parking on my residential street.

We, the residents and taxpayers, definitely need to rise up, as it seems to be constant theme in NOTL.

I am also disgusted at town staff’s treatment of highly specialized craft and tradesman Dean McLellan, (“Frustrated stone mason angry with town’s handling of gateway project,” The Lake Report, July 7).

It shows a complete lack of understanding and ignorance of the construction industry.

We should not be engaging Aldershot Landscaping without a public tender, (notwithstanding that the company is not even from Niagara Region), especially if there are any taxpayer funds required over and above the $250,000 donation.

Chief administrator Marnie Cluckie is misguided and wrong in her statement that “the situation was exceptional due to the specialized nature of the dry stone work.”

There are always multiple contractors (one or more) willing to take on such work.

One just has to dig around the industry and ask the right people, or simply prepare and publish a tender on the online bidding sites, of which there are many now.

We have to be creative in helping such specialized and smaller trade contractors perform work within their local areas – and, of course, this is the way toward a more sustainable future.

Lawson Signcrafters, the local signage contractor who missed out on the ShopNOTL campaign, seems to be another example of poor purchasing policy and inadequate thought and consideration by NOTL town staff.

Philip Hoad

St. Davids