To the Editor:
Reed Nixon, a write-in candidate for Camp Hill Borough Council, was paraphrased in PennLive last week saying that the charges against a neighbor for cutting grass in an area park is a “flagrant example of government trampling an individual’s rights.”
I disagree.
The illegally mowed ground was public, not private, property. Individuals have never had the right to landscape public parks -- we delegate that to local governments, managed by elected officials. Cutting the grass in a public park, like any other act of defacing public property, in fact tramples on the fundamental democratic principle of the rule of law.
Yes, the issue of riparian buffers – which I suspect is the real government overreach Mr. Nixon refers to -- is controversial. But Camp Hill, along with every other Pennsylvania municipality, is governed by a complex web of federal, state, county, and local laws and regulations, as well as regional environmental agreements, regarding waterway management. Moreover, like them or not, these riparian buffers are effective in reducing harmful runoff and improve the health not only of our local streams and creeks, but ultimately the Susquehanna River and the Chesapeake Bay, our country’s largest estuary.
I urge Mr. Nixon, as a candidate for Camp Hill Borough Council, to take some time to gain a better understanding of how government works, and what the Borough of Camp Hill can and cannot do regarding waterway management. It is irresponsible of him to encourage residents to break the law just because they don’t like it.
Corinna Wilson
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