I read with interest Nelly Dever’s column (Improve The First Impression, The Daily News, Feb. 4) detailing the Airport-Brocklehurst Gateway plan that will be presented in June. The presentation should be open to the public and I plan to attend.

I have lived in Brock near Tranquille for more than 20 years and I think her comment, “the make-up of Brocklehurst has changed little,” is off the mark somewhat. When I arrived, there were more orchards (they still did a Blossoms Tour in the spring) and more empty spaces. Now there are more luxury homes and way more traffic.

However, I like the vision of the corridor-oasis. I have often felt that people arriving at the airport get a poor impression and it would be great to see wider roads, sidewalks, trees, plants and parks — whatever is in the plan.

I find the traffic along Tranquille Road between the airport and Southill Street is heavy and made worse by the hundreds of tankers that travel that route to get to the Suncorp plant to load fuel.

A few years ago someone decided that these tankers needed to travel a number of miles from the highway along a busy thoroughfare and through residential neighbourhoods instead of taking a short detour off the Trans-Canada to the (now defunct) Esso bulk plant (across from the prison).

In my opinion it was not a good decision, although it might have helped the oil companies.

A few years ago they worked on the Southill intersection and Tranquille Road  had detours for a few months.

The big rigs couldn’t do the small corners, so used Ord Road.  Wow! Was it ever pleasant in Brock for those few months. No rambling tankers barreling through at all hours.

I know the people who live along Ord Road don’t want the traffic either, but if the bulk plant being used is the one near the airport, maybe trucks should travel on the truck route, not through the city.

Tranquille Road is only two lanes west of Southill and I find it is very busy at many times during the day. For example, I have waited at a marked crosswalk on Schreiner Street for 38 vehicles to pass before I was able to cross the road at around 5 p.m. The speed limit is 60 km/h and most drivers are concentrating on the road and not watching to see if someone is at a crosswalk.

With Tranquille-on-the-Lake hoping to add 3,000 to 4,000 more people to the area something does need to be done. Double laning? Slower speeds? Beautification? Trucks using other routes?

Thank you, Ms. Dever, for mentioning the proposed gateway project. I look forward to hearing more about it.

PAT PARKER

Kamloops