To the residents who live on or around the Cowichan Lake lakeshore and users of the lake and its beaches, who have expressed their concern regarding the noise of a small but increasing number of loud boats on this lake:

Many of you signed a petition a year ago asking that the CVRD and the Town of Lake Cowichan enforce bylaws providing for the control of the noise of loud boats on Lake Cowichan. Signs were put up, and there was another poker run.

Although it is you who spend your money here all the time and who continually donate to local charities, and, in most cases pay local property taxes, your concerns are not yet being heard. There needs to be a concerted effort from local and regional government and the RCMP to put some teeth into bylaw enforcement.

Instead, David Moss is being lauded for promoting a poker run, inviting boaters to this lake who have been made aware of concerns regarding the noise nuisance and of the two bylaws that are in place that many of the boaters will contravene. He tells us that they will spend money on things like food, fuel, moorage and beer.

And, they will donate some money to a local charity (like you do all the time), so it will all be okay. In exchange they will roar past the Meades Creek, Marble Bay, Honeymoon Bay, North Arm and Caycuse waterfronts at least twice and, lucky Youbou, three or four times.

There will be a lunch stop ( a few pop) at the pub before the last run up the lake, to flex their muscle and where there is virtuallly no other boaters traffic and where the lake is large enough to allow the owners of these high powered boats to get some speed on the water.

Moss says the boats will be off the water by 4 pm. (They will come early and stay late because they see they can get away with it) And then, after being a nuisance and a safety hazard, and providing encouragement to others who will see they can come here and thumb their noses at legislation and show no regard for the quiet, peace, rest, enjoyment, comfort or convenience of individuals or the public (bylaws 1760 & 1060), you and I will be given the opportunity to remove our earplugs and view those boats at Saywell Park.

Surely we can have events on this lake that are safe, welcoming and appropriate to a wide range of families and children who use the lake for swimming, paddling, water-skiing, wake boarding, tubing, sailing and fishing.

We can have events that enhance the very nature of our pristine water environment instead of compromising and destroying it for a dollar and a donation.

Diana Gunderson is a Meades Creek resident.