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Vol. 14, Issue 09
FREE
Wednesday, March 29, 2023
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READY TO SUPPRESS IF NEEDED
Essex Region Conservation Authority (ERCA) fire crew member and conservation area technician Tim Baxter gets ready with his fire suppression backpack as flames climb through the air at Hillman Marsh on Tuesday, March 21. ERCA was on hand to perform a prescribed controlled burn of the 12-acre prairie grass field on the conservation area property. The prescribed burns are necesarry from time-to-time to allow vegetation and other species to rejuvenate in a natural environment. A full story and more photos are on page 9. SUN photo
Kingsville opts for modified Open Streets schedule By Mark Ribble After lengthy discussion and a couple failed motions, Open Streets will return to Kingsville this summer — albeit modified from the original plan. The plan recommended by administration originally had seven Saturdays in Kingsville and one in Cottam where the roads would be closed to allow the event to take place. Councillor Sheri Lowrie spoke up first, asking for the date of Saturday, August 12 to be removed from the plan as it conflicted with the annual Greenway Jam music festival. She also wondered if the streets — scheduled to close at 4 pm for a 5 pm event — should be closed an hour earlier to give vendors and restaurant patios time to set up. Councillor Thomas Neufeld was concerned about the August 5 date in Cottam as it would compete with the Hogs for Hospice event going on in
Leamington. “It looks like Cottam’s playing second fiddle,” he said. “Why have it that weekend with a competing event?” Neufeld recommended that the schedule be cut back to two in July and two in August, based on what he’d heard from members of the business community. “A letter from a long-standing business really opened my eyes,” he said. “Residents on the side streets have had to deal with lots of increased traffic. It makes me a little hesitant to approve this.” According to Kingsville’s Manager of Recreation and Special Events Karen Loney, the reaction throughout town has been mixed with some businesses loving it and others, not so much. “We reached out to the BIA, which is a representative of the businesses, asking for concrete feedback,” she said. “Had they said that Open Streets is
not beneficial, we would have seen a very different report tonight.” Council and administration agreed that the residents and businesses were split on the benefit from Open Streets as the conversation progressed. Economic Development and Tourism Officer Sue Rice stated that response has been mixed when asked about any feedback she’s received.
“Maybe we should dial it back a little bit.” — Thomas Neufeld Neufeld suggested that maybe the event has run its course. “Maybe we should dial it back a little bit,” he said. Councillor Tony Gaffan asked about true data with regard to feedback. “It’s always important
that we get feedback,” he said. “There are 200 businesses in the BIA. We’re not getting true data. I don’t mind supporting some Open Streets, but I think this (the recommendation) is a little heavy.” Deputy Mayor Kim Deyong said the Open Streets original intent was to help a particular industry that was affected by the pandemic (restuarants), which evolved into a great community event, but she said they were at a crossroads. “In order to please everyone, we’re not pleasing anyone,” she said. DeYong felt that reducing the number of days would not benefit the restaurants, who were the original beneficiary of the event. She felt there were two choices — go big as recommended or don’t have it at all. Lowrie agreed, saying, “This is a top 100 festival. It’s all about the memories and what to do in your town on a Saturday
night. What do we want this event to be? Let’s own it and make it something great.” Councillor Larry Patterson put forth a motion to hold off a year and collect some data but the motion died on the floor. Mayor Dennis Rogers suggested moving forward with the recommendation with a high priority on collecting data from all parties involved. After Councillor Lowrie’s motion failed to close the streets earlier, a new motion was put forth by Councillor Tony Gaffan to hold the event on July 8, 15, 29 and August 19 and 26, while “highly advertising the dates that we are not having it.” In the end, council voted 4-3 in favour of Gaffan’s motion. With that, it was decided that Canada Day celebrations would be held at the arena and that Cottam would have an Open Streets event of their own on Saturday, July 22.