Reader believes cottages and all of Snug Cove should be governed locally

Last week I wrote a comment to the article by Susanne Martin in the form of verse. It was not  printed, but there was room for 5 pro-cabin letters. I am aware that my views on those rotting cabins are not politically correct and that my poem was not helpful to the heritage group’s purpose. I do believe that the Cove should be under the jurisdiction of the local government and taken out of the regional park, Metro and the heritage group. Our Cove is small and narrow and we need it desperately to solve our ferry lineup and parking problems for local businesses who suffer from the lack of parking. Declaring the Cove a walking  area does not solve any of the obvious problems, since people have to get there from all over the island before they can walk there, and there are no buses in the evening when people go out to eat.

We had a big public meeting in the school years ago about our plans for the Cove. The outcome was that two-storey heritage buildings would be best: businesses downstairs, social housing upstairs for the people who work on Bowen and cannot find an affordable place to live. There is no turf war between the social housing and heritage. If we as the whole island decide that we need the space pre-empted by these old empty cabins for today’s living, we will succeed to take them out of the regional park.

Captain Cates, who once filled downtown Bowen with life, dances, tennis, camping and action on Sandy Beach, would be the last one who would want the Cove to be a ghost town as a memorial to his company.

We have the museum for that and the historians. Let’s dare to bring life back into the Cove, even without that inspired dance pavilion.

It is understandable that people born on Bowen have fond memories and try to cling to these old cabins as the last remnants of those bygone days.

I walk in those woods every day and in that lovely meadow, where a farmer’s field has become the living joy of so many people and dogs and horses, and kids playing ultimate and babies learning to walk. Imagine what the Cove could be as living space.

I was here when Jean Jamieson called all anti-development people together to save those cabins from the bulldozer. In hindsight it was a mistake. Sorry Jean, but I have lived through too much history to see those cabins as the crown jewels of Bowen.

We need the Cove too much to spare it as a museum.

Imke Zimmermann