To the Editor:
I have been back and forth to the interior over the past 30 years and would never have guessed the transient fruit pickers were in dire straights when it came to having clean living space - running water or toilet facilities.
The river should not be the bathing place for transients or others as soap, etc. entering these resources was outlawed a long time ago.
What to do is fairly simple in my view- that may help rid at least part of such a nuisance problem .
1. Hold back a small portion of the picker’s pay to off set the bill for any damage created by them -refund if all is well.
(In the Lee Marvin movie “ The Dirty Dozen “ If one in 12 screwed up they all paid the price.)
2. Have numbered campsites to match some form of resident camper I.D.( perhaps a small disc stamped with the matching number on the site.)
3. Garbage bags and perhaps a rake or two to help keep campsites clean-a dumpster nearby would encourage cleanliness of the site, I think.
4. His and her toilets as found in provincial parks could be pumped out when necessary by the septic tanker guy who cleans up your mess.
5. Running water pumped seasonally from the river or perhaps supplied by the village which could be disposed after use in a man-made rock pit.
6. Solar power to heat up water to shower in his and her private cubicles (solar power has been used in this manner for sometime).
It took me hardly a minute to think of the above inexpensive ideas - so come on concerned people give your head a shake and add to them. Tom Isherwood, Olalla