Council was right to grant entrepreneur a reprieve

Dear editor:

I am writing regarding The Lake Report’s May 2 story, Council reinstates rental licence despite record of non-compliance.

I came to this wonderful country in March of 1952 from Germany.

I was 17-and-a-half years old at the time. My 19-year-old brother and I bought a lot and built a 1.5-storey garage. We had a building permit, which included a note saying, “Not for human habitation.”

By October of the same year, we proudly moved into our garage. It was clearly a bylaw infraction.

Soon thereafter we got a building permit to build a house, which made everything legal.

In 1963, I built Lincoln Feed & Farm Supply Ltd. on Niagara Stone Road, now Minor Bros./MB Country Living.

The site plan stipulated, “No outside storage.” We could not abide by that. Today, it is permissible.

This brings us to Marlene Gallyot’s problem as outlined in your story. Her profession is wedding officiant.

Apparently this leads to requests for weddings to be held at her property. That is a normal part of entrepreneurship.

I praise town council for its reasonable response. However, a permanent solution must be found for a legal continuation of Gallyot’s operation.

Coun. Erwin Wiens had it right when he said, “It’s a big hammer to put someone out of business.”

And I say, “You can take everything from the entrepreneur except his or her freedom.”

We need entrepreneurs in our community.

Hans Wiens
NOTL