A SMALL BUT SIGNIFICANT ACHIEVEMENT - OF PEOPLE POWER - A TOWN RE-CONCILIATION - IT’S A START - EVIDENCE OF MAKING THE BEST OF IT

Just a bit of providential harking but I nearly got hit by lightning first thing this morning, while out on an amble through The Bog. Jesus, it just came out of an otherwise harmless looking sky. No storm, no warning, just a beautiful misty rain over Gravenhurst. I haven’t run in twenty years but I’ve proven what willpower and a keen sense of self preservation can muster from a pile of old bones and sagging muscles.

I just moments ago, started banging my hairless head onto the computer table, after a brief power-outage swallowed all my morning copy. I survived the near lightning hit, and son Robert was able to recover my copy. I was either supposed to write this editorial or was warned not to by forces beyond, but before something else tries to take me out, here’s a little opinion-piece about a group I’m usually at odds with! Just as a humorous anecdote to a weird atmospheric day, the computer went down again, and when the tears and screaming didn’t fix it for me, Robert once more came to the rescue. I’m not computer literate you see. I just play with this keyboard. Let’s get on with the story Currie.

This morning the section of Muskoka Road, that has been closed due to the unfortunate confluence of road construction, and the recent structure fire that damaged three buildings (two may be hauled down), is being paved, apparently re-surfaced for the benefit of the walking public, if not vehicular traffic. A street mall as a trial? Seems like a good idea! An idea emerging from the chaos of construction and a frightening conflagration.

Point is, the members of the BIA, and those intimately connected to the block-in-limbo situation, made a strong argument, via a bold and compelling on-site protest this week, that with the hardships already endured by the hard-hit zone, the balance of restorative work beneath the surface of the road, should be delayed until later this year. Allowing merchants, adversely affected by both fire and construction, and the closure of the road due to the dangerous architectural state of the remaining buildings, an opportunity to find some commercial saving-grace to prepare for a summer season getting precariously close. With no strict schedule so far, as to when the work on the two remaining buildings will commence, whether a rebuilding project or outright demolition, the road closure was becoming a financial disaster after the fact.

I don’t often agree with the BIA administration, and frankly they wouldn’t think it was important either way, but this latest foray does compel me to credit this particular effort. You can’t help but be inspired by the fact they ruffled feathers, made some demands, (rightly so), and have achieved in this town what some would have believed impossible. They may get a chance to play around with what they have been interested in for years, having a street mall closed to vehicle traffic. I don’t know if this is the full intent but at least in the meantime, it’s a worthwhile experiment for main street business enhancement. And it has generated forth from a rather disastrous situation. As for the town and district going along with this.....it shows, if I’m not being too presumptuous, that negotiation and sensible proportion are still out there in full vigor. It’s not a great situation but for what they have suffered already, from being in a closed zone, they deserve to get whatever breaks they can get right now, on the hair’s breadth of the summer season......which afterall officially begins on the Victoria Day weekend.

Presenting a compelling, forceful and yet sensibly balanced argument, for the immediate re-paving of this section of main street, shows the kind of business moxie we can all benefit from.....and despite the history of bickering and nit-picking from one end of the street to the other, something exciting has emerged from the rubble of discontent. “We’re mad as hell....and we’re not going to take this any more!” When applied in the right way.....and timing has a lot to do with it, positive change arises like a glorious phoenix........and that’s what this humble scribe saw after sunrise, manifesting in his home town. It’s the kind of evidence that shows us all, including the town, that there is a point where necessity and opportunity outweigh the methods and politeness of gentle, formal protocol. We’ve all tried that, and at best it’s usually a poor, slowly achieved, half-outcome, making us feel we got something..... but not much for our efforts. After seeing how this situation has been resolved, at least temporarily, I’m beginning to think we’re going gonzo here, in this conflicted burg, just south of the 45th parallel of latitude. Citizens and business-folks now seem quite prepared to deal with the challenge of straightening up this present mess at town hall. And they’ve certainly commanded the attention of town hall. They’ve made demands, and seen at least some positive resolution. Protest may be a last resort but for many of us, there’s no other choice, standing in a sort of suspended animation at this crossroads of a town past and present.

It’s the kind of determination we’re going to need in full harvest, to recover from the present unfortunate realities. The BIA has, in a small but significant way, shown us the importance of getting involved, and refusing to succumb to circumstance. After the dust settles here, the one true advantage we will have achieved, as a business community at the very least, is a clear and strong new voice, and the working frequency from the mainstreet to town hall, which will ensure keen regard from our elected representatives. Thank you for demonstrating how we should all honor and respect democratic privilege.

I hope it works out for them. I trust we can take some inspiration from the BIA determination, to help solve other dilemmas we find ourselves faced with in 2010.

I’m calling in the resident computer expert to get this latest tome online. Will he make it? You tell me! Always like to hear from readers.