PelhamToday received the following letter about plans to charge for parking at St. Johns Conservation Area:
My wife and I have been going to St. Johns regularly for the last 16 years with our dogs. That is when we moved to Fonthill from St. Catharines.
I cannot remember ever seeing any significant vandalism. What I did see over the years was neglect due to lack of maintenance. Minimal maintenance on the benches, the gravel path around the pond, the signage and all the trails through the wooded areas.
In my opinion this is a local passive park, as there is not an ongoing big draw for users, such as Balls Falls. The one time when more people are drawn to the park is the stocking of trout.
The NPCA should do a survey of who actually uses this park. Then, I believe, it will confirm that the majority of users are from the Town of Pelham.
There is no justification to restrict the use of this park by locking it up and charging fees to use it. My hope is that the NPCA will realize that they need to evaluate each conservation area and not take a blanket approach to apply fees everywhere.
John Busca
Fonthill
