Beach meeting Saturday; next Strip Nov. 21 | Grand Bend Strip community newspaper

View from the Strip
By Casey Lessard

An important meeting is taking place this weekend (Saturday, October 27 at 9 a.m.) at the Grand Bend Public School, and anyone interested in the future of Grand Bend should attend. It’s billed as a beach revitalization meeting, but anyone who attended the last one in the summer knows it’s a lot more than that.
Attendees at the last meeting left feeling like the municipality had ignored the realities of the village, and noting the town should get the main strip right before making changes to the beach.
It will be hard walking into a room full of people who are skeptical of your plans, but that could have been avoided by asking questions of the stakeholders in the first place. The people I’ve talked to about this issue say they’ve never been approached (before or after the meeting), and they should have been.
Not all of the ideas presented at the last beach improvement meeting were bad; some weren’t considerate of the context of the village. Many people who attended would like to see the main street cleaned up and made more attractive first. They forgot the meeting was focused on beach improvement, not village improvement. Unfortunately for Lambton Shores, most people consider the two the same.
And yes, there were arguments about the quality and quantity of work put into maintaining the beach on a daily basis. They should not be forgotten either, and we’ll see whether they are addressed.
It’s a good sign that the town has listened to residents who were furious over meetings held on weekdays. We’ll see Saturday morning whether the municipality has listened to anything else, and I’m sure there will be plenty of people who disagree with the plans walking in the door.
Once bitten, twice shy, right?

Strip monthly until May
Our next edition is November 21. We will appear in your mailbox monthly until the Victoria Day weekend. See updates at our website: http://grandbendstrip.com.

Name spelled wrong
I also want to apologize for spelling Louise Lockrey’s name wrong. I’ll try to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

The Author Casey Lessard

0 Comments

webbycan

November 7, 2007 12:44 am

THE MEETING HAPPENED TO A FULL HOUSE, BUT MY GUESS IS THE LISTENING IS OVER, IT SEEMS MORE LIKE AN EXERCISE IN PUBLIC RELATIONS TO SAY LATER THAT THEY CONSULTED, BUT AS THEY ARE ELECTED THEY WILL DO WHAT THEY FEEL IS RIGHT.
AND SPEND AN INCREDIBLE BUDGET OF 3-31/2 MILLION DOLLARS ON WEIRD PLANS, MAYBE ITS GOING TO BE GRANDIOSE BEND IN THE NEXT FEW YEARS, EVER CHANGING THE NATURE OF OUR COMMUNITY.