Penticton waterpark debate reaches new low with misguided message

PENTICTON – A Penticton woman expressing support for a waterpark in Skaha Park is dismayed and offended after receiving a personal attack simply because of her stance on the development.

Amber Fradin has a sign in her window that reads “Support the Skaha Marina Improvement Project” along with directions to the group’s Facebook page.

“No one has even once questioned me about it and then, just out of the blue, they had to shove that thing in my mailbox," Fradin says, referring to a message stuffed into her mailbox slot on this week.

It read, “There is currently a park at Skaha Lake you can enjoy every day for FREE. You live in subsidized housing and you support a park that will cost you $15 to $25 per visit, per person, to attend? If you can afford that, then what are you doing in subsidized housing?”

Fradin says the typed note didn't have a name or any on it or any way to identify who sent it, adding she would be quite willing to have a friendly chat about the issue with the person who sent it.

She figures whoever dropped off the note probably made an assumption about her finances because she resides in a low income housing complex.

“Most of us who are in here are low income, or trying to gain financial freedom again,” she says.

Fradin, a single mom with a 9-year-old daughter and 4-year-old son, says she found the message offensive.

“Because I live here people think I can’t save up for a day at the watersides. It’s an unfair observation to make,” Fradin says. “I can understand their side of it. Most of them can’t seem to understand the other side of it. So for me it was a personal attack just to get their point across,”

The debate over construction of a waterpark, including watersides in Skaha Lake Park, has been ongoing since early last year when council announced plans for a revitalized Skaha Park centred around Skaha Marina. The City of Penticton is currently involved in a civil suit with the Save Skaha Park Society.

To contact the reporter for this story, email Steve Arstad at sarstad@infonews.ca or call 250-488-3065. To contact the editor, email mjones@infonews.ca or call 250-718-2724.