BarrieToday welcomes letters to the editor at [email protected]. Please include your daytime phone number and address (for verification of authorship, not publication). The following letter is about the Spring Tonic Maple Syrup Festival, which was held this past weekend in Essa Township.
What a wonderful day for a family outing! The sun was shining, it was finally warm, and the wind calmed down.
The Nottawasaga Valley Conservation Authority (NVCA) had its annual Spring Tonic Maple Syrup Festival weekend on the 8th Line in Essa Township. There were pancakes to be eaten with maple syrup, horse wagon rides to be had and a first-hand look at how the sap was boiled down to the delicious syrup.
The place was packed with families! So packed that many had to park out on the 8th Line.
Yup. And in the afternoon, the Township of Essa came along and ticketed all the vehicles parked on the 8th Line! That will teach them!
And it also earned a few bucks for the township.
True, there are no parking signs, so they shouldn’t have parked there. But surely the conservation authority, the township and the Rotary Club could work out an arrangement that would ensure that all remained safe and within a reasonable spirit of the occasion.
With crowds of that proportion and the necessity of families to use a vehicle to access the out-of-town facility, some accommodations can be made to ensure this does not happen.
The conservation authority does important work that many of us do not see or appreciate. It is imperative that they get exposure through these events.
The conservation authority, the volunteers and the Rotary Club do an excellent job in hosting these events. Let us not have the families discouraged from attending by a parking ticket at the end of an event.
Steve Oaks
Barrie
