Two years ago, the planning process was underway to rejuvenate a rather forlorn Talbot Street parkette so it could again contribute to life in the downtown core.Masterminding the transformation was the team of Andrew Gunn and Maddie King (below in the photo) of young & free press in conjunction with city staff and through the assistance of Arthur Lierman Landscape Architecture.
A similar process was undertaken in 2020, which resulted in the formation of Westlake Evans Civic Park, adjacent to St. Thomas Public Library.
Two summers ago, the pair were at the stage of gathering input from community groups and residents.
“We started a process with the city over the past year or so,” noted Gunn, “and really the idea is here are some open green spaces in the downtown and what could be added to make them active, vibrant spots for the downtown to help bring residents and visitors here.”
The key, added Gunn, is public input.
That included comments from students at elementary and high schools in St. Thomas.
Two years later, the transformation is moving forward.
At Monday’s (July 20) council meeting, members endorsed the Hepburn Parkette Revitalization Project for submission to the Build Communities Strong Fund – Local Impact Stream, and directed staff to prepare an application for a 2027 start.As Adrienne Lacey Griffin, Director of Parks and Recreation, noted in her report to council, the fund “prioritizes projects that build, expand, or improve community infrastructure, strengthen community vitality, and enhance quality of life across southern Ontario.
“As a highly visible downtown greenspace with cultural, recreational, and economic potential, Hepburn Parkette aligns closely with these objectives.”
The design “Reimagines the parkette as a flexible and accessible environment featuring upgraded landscaping, pathways, seating, and lighting. New elements, including an interactive water feature, vendor kiosk, and performance space, are intended to support daily use as well as organized events and programming.
“Together, these features will encourage longer visits, increased activity, and broader community participation.”
Lacey Griffin continued, “A local community partner is working with an internationally renowned artist to explore a mural concept that will contribute to the overall vision for the space, enhance its visual identity, and reinforce the parkette as a recognizable downtown destination.
“This artist will also be partnering on a local educational piece for young artists.
“The revitalization is expected to generate meaningful economic benefits by increasing foot traffic and supporting nearby businesses. The addition of a kiosk will create opportunities for local entrepreneurs, while programming and events will attract visitors and animate the downtown core.
“These outcomes will further strengthen St. Thomas’ role as a regional service and cultural hub.”Total estimated cost is $1.64 million, with $100,000 in private fundraising already secured.
During discussion on the Hepburn Parkette motion, Coun. Earl Taylor advised, “During Nostalgia Nights last Saturday (July 11), the parkette was used very, very well.
“It’s unfortunate it didn’t happen last year, but I’m fingers crossed that we can get the funding for this to go through next year.”
Coun. Lori Baldwin-Sands observed, “This park has gone to a state of disrepair for an extended period of time, and to see the life that it can bring back, not just for the Talbot Street landscape, but for the entire community.
“I think it will be a great asset to our downtown and to the entire community and to the legacy of (former Ontario Premier and area resident) Mitchell Hepburn.”
Coun. Gary Clarke floated the idea of expanding the parkette.
“ I hope that we would keep in mind the idea of a Phase 2 where we could push the parkette all the way through to Centre Street and make use of the parking lot. And so I’m hoping that as we design Phase 1, that we keep that in mind so that it doesn’t become problematic if we wanted to expand it.”
An idea endorsed by Coun. Joan Rymal.
If funding is approved, work would begin next year.
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CANDIDATE PROFILE: MORGAINE GRIFFIN, CENTRAL ELGIN
This week we begin our profiles of area candidates running in the Oct. 26 municipal vote.
We start with Morgaine Griffin, Ward 2 councillor in Central Elgin, who has filed her papers as a mayoral candidate in Central Elgin.
This is her first term on council, as was the case for the remainder of the councillors, along with the mayor and deputy mayor.
“So that was a very steep learning curve,” admitted Griffin. “And although I know there’s a lot more leadership involved in the role of mayor than councillor, I don’t think it’s nearly as big a step up. I think we can do it.”
We asked her to go back to that initial decision to run for Central Elgin council.
“It involved a lot of things. I left my work in library services and transitioned over to supply teaching to give myself that flexibility for all those daytime commitments. And even just the running was nerve-wracking. I was running against two incumbents.
“I was running against Karen Cook, who had been a councillor, and also our former mayor, Sally Martyn. So there was an awful lot of rapport already built with the community there, and it was an uphill battle.”Formidable odds, no doubt.
“I know that this is corny, but I think I believe in myself because I feel like my community believes in me. I have had people asking me since two years before nominations opened whether I was going to run for it, telling me that they would love to be able to support me doing it.
“And I think that I’ve been working so hard to hear community feedback that I know that what I’m bringing is what reflects people’s desires.”
Griffin credits knocking on doors as playing a critical role in winning that seat on council.
“And everybody who has reached out to me and asked me for advice about how to be a successful candidate, I have said to them, go and meet people there. But I think it’s more than doors. I think it’s meet people where they are.
”And that was one of my biggest criticisms of things like the debates is that a debate is a great time to broadcast to many people. But if you have a debate between seven and nine at night, there’s an awful lot of parents getting kids in bed or to and from sports. There are people working evening jobs.
“And one of the things that I did that nobody else in Central Elgin had started doing when I first launched it was my social media campaign. And there were some people who pushed back and said, you know, I’m not doing social media because I don’t think that’s an appropriate place for politics. But the reality is that we are living in a very busy world and not everyone has that time and space to get out to all of your things.
“I also hosted farmer’s market events because, again, if you can catch someone while they’re grabbing the meat and cheese they wanted, they have five minutes, but they don’t always have two hours.”
We asked Griffin about her thoughts on the ward system in Central Elgin.
“I think that for Central Elgin, the ward system is completely necessary. I know that for certain cities, using an all-candidates system is a little bit more straightforward. With us having major built-up areas like Port Stanley and Belmont that have very unique needs and desires, and then other areas that have very different nuance to them.
“Rural communities want very different things from what villages with business areas do. And having that ward system guarantees that you have at least one person there at the table every time who understands your things more intimately, can advocate to those issues and explain them better at the table for the people that are voting on it and want to understand it but aren’t right there.
With the mega-developments underway in St. Thomas and proposed for Central Elgin, this is an entirely different playing field than what she faced four years ago.
“That’s true. A lot of that, there were speculations starting to float, but there was nothing out there really concrete yet. And now we’ve got so much major development and so many major infrastructure considerations. And that’s one of the reasons that I really wanted to make sure that I’m at that level so that I can be the one communicating and advocating.”
“But the real bee in my bonnet about the whole situation has been that I don’t feel that we communicated that honestly and early. I felt that, to some extent, the province muzzled us. They were communicating things that they intended as closed-session communications that we were not allowed to share with the public.”
Of particular concern are the hospital lands with the proposed residential development and the future of the former psychiatric hospital.
“It has been a hot-button issue already, and it’s one that we’re all struggling with. I know that right now, the byline that everybody’s been sharing is that we don’t have control over it. It’s a provincial decision. And that is true.
“But the real bee in my bonnet about the whole situation has been that I don’t feel that we communicated that honestly and early. I felt that, to some extent, the province muzzled us. They were communicating things that they intended as closed-session communications that we were not allowed to share with the public.
“But partly I would put that back on my own council that we had consultants doing public consultation meetings to hear feedback from the public. And although maybe we were not allowed to come out and say the province has given us a heads up that they want to do these things, the very least we could do is stop spending the taxpayer money to consult the public about a thing that we’re about to be told is going to happen anyway and pretend to the public that they have more say in it than they do.
“I would like to see us, if we’re going to consult, taking all that feedback from all of those people who have feelings about what we do with the hospital and pushing back on the province. They might have the right in the final decision, but that doesn’t mean we’re not here to represent our community.”
With her inaugural term winding down, we asked Griffin for her impressions of the four years.
“We have got a lot of things in the pan right now, but there are a lot of things that I would like us to be doing differently. I have been a strong advocate for more data-driven and more nuanced decisions about how we set our water rates and our taxes and things.
“Right now we have feedback telling us that we are millions of dollars behind on having enough money in our reserves to cover basic assets as they retire. And I think that we’ve been focused pretty hard on good news stories. And I’d like to see us doing things in a more responsible way. I want to see us not giving sticker shock like that.
“Something that I often have to talk through with people, both about taxes and also about things like water rates, is to think about how many kilometres of road you have on, say, Quaker Line, and how many houses are on that road. And yet you need to get infrastructure all the way down there. You need to keep that road maintained for every single household. You’re driving all of those kilometres to pick the garbage up.
“Everything in a rural community sprawls. And that means that every service that you provide takes more. And unfortunately, in some ways, that is the luxury tax of choosing to live in a rural community. It’s beautiful. It’s picturesque. You’ve got the space. You’ve got the nature. And there are sometimes costs with it.”
“And I’m not running for a position. I’m running for a to-do list. I have things I want to get done. And I want the public to see them now, start chewing on them now. I want to start hearing that feedback and getting toward where I’m going. And I don’t see the point in hedging around until August for that.”
One that comes up all the time is the internet. And the cost of providing a reliable internet service.
“Yes, and I was a little disappointed in our first year when we had some patchwork additional cell towers that were brought into Port Stanley. Because, you know, as 4G towers are replaced with 5G, it gets to be stronger, but it also is a little smaller radius. So you get these little triangle gaps.
“We had some patches put in in Port Stanley. I tried so hard to get a conversation going about getting some patch towers for some of our other dead zones like Union and Sparta. “
Griffin was right out of the gate with her nomination papers after the filing period opened on May 1, and we asked her about the motivation.
“You know, I think people like clarity. They like to know where they’re going and what they’re expecting, and they like to be able to prepare themselves for things.
“And I’m not running for a position. I’m running for a to-do list. I have things I want to get done. And I want the public to see them now, start chewing on them now. I want to start hearing that feedback and getting toward where I’m going. And I don’t see the point in hedging around until August for that.”
“It comes back to meeting people where they are, like I was saying before. And the world is busy, and people are short on time. And I think the more runway you give people to look at your platform and let you know about the part they didn’t see that they wanted to understand, those things are important. And it’s respectful to the community to give them the time to do that research correctly.
“You want to win by merit, not by default.”
And so what are the key issues Griffin foresees in the coming four years?
“For me, there’s an awful lot of places where we’re going to need better communication and better clarification. There are a lot of people quite panicked approaching nominations this time on my council because they ran last time swearing that they could do things that they didn’t really know whether they could fulfill or not. And they didn’t really understand all of the legislation.
“And so, for example, we have people swearing that they can fix water things that they didn’t quite understand. I want to be here to give people fair, honest expectations. Tell them what we can do. Tell them what we can’t do. Tell them what we’re going to grind our teeth and get through and do better next time, whether it was our council that started it or not.
“People can handle disappointment a lot better than they can handle confusion or betrayal.”
“I want us to get to a budget that’s going to actually cover our costs so we’re not taking on loans and debts and making people’s taxes pay the interest on those things.
“I want us to start to plan our housing and development in a way that’s more respectful of what our community is asking for. Right now we have seven-figure houses, like million-plus dollar houses, sitting in Port Stanley for more than a year on the market, and people complaining that they can’t afford something that puts their kids in walking distance to the school.
“So I would like to see us trying to change our planning to better reflect what we need.
“Central Elgin is one of the most senior communities in the province and aging as it goes. And we’ve got lots of grandmas that don’t want to stay on the farm and figure out how to shovel their own snow, but they still want to be close to the grandkids.
“So density means things like apartment buildings, places that have an elevator as your mobility changes. Density is a really important thing for our aging population, but it is also a way to mitigate that sprawl. And we do have a huge rural community and beautiful farmland. And if we want to protect that, we have to plan to build inward in the spaces we already have.”
As we began to wrap up, the conversation turned to the need for honesty with your constituents.
Griffin stressed, “I think if we really respect our community as our equals and as intelligent people and people who are following the issues and care about the answers, we need to give them the news, for better or for worse.
“People can handle disappointment a lot better than they can handle confusion or betrayal.”
Her campaign signs are clearly visible, as is her message.
“My signs right now on the lawn say stewardship, evidence, respect.
“I’ve been overwhelmed by how positive the reception of my announcement has been and how many people have reached out to support in so many ways.”
Griffin has spent her entire life in the area, while her family has been farming in former Yarmouth Township for generations.
“I ran to be part of a council that listens and engages — and every day, I try to be that councillor.”
THE MAPLE LEAFS’ ST. THOMAS CONNECTION
To the new generation of Maple Leafs’ fans, the name is likely to draw a blank. To long-suffering supporters, the name Hap Day speaks of the glory days of the blue and white.
Clarence (Hap) Day enjoyed a 33-year career in the NHL as a player, referee and in the front office, 28 of those with the Leafs. His name is engraved on the Stanley Cup seven times, the last in 1951 as assistant manager in Toronto.He left/was pushed out of the organization in 1957. His Number 4 was honoured in 2006 and officially retired ten years later during celebrations honouring the Leafs’ centennial season.
There is a wonderful St. Thomas connection to Hap Day.
Following his tenure in Toronto, Day purchased Elgin Handles. He sold the operation to his son, Kerry, in 1977.
Kerry Day died earlier this month at St. Thomas Elgin General Hospital at the age of 92.
Kerry began his career at Elgin Handles under Hap’s leadership before assuming ownership and the role of president.
The factory closed early this century.
The site is now the home of Hope Crossing, formerly Project Tiny Hope.
Growing up in Toronto, Day was a stick boy for the Leafs and his name was etched on the Stanley Cup in 1945.
He was an active member of Knox Presbyterian Church, the St. Thomas Golf & Country Club, the St. Thomas Curling Club, and the Kiwanis Club.
After retiring from Elgin Handles, he devoted his time to actively fundraising for the St. Thomas Elgin General Hospital Foundation.
In March of 2017, Kerry and his wife Anne attended a ceremony near the Jumbo monument as the commemorative Hap Day banner was welcomed to its new permanent home in St. Thomas.The lighthearted affair was hosted by the voice of the Maple Leafs, Joe Bowen.
At the commemorative event, then mayor Heather Jackson observed, “We’re here to celebrate Hap Day, his career with the Maple Leafs, but also what he gave back to our community here in the City of St. Thomas. We are very proud he chose to live in St. Thomas, chose to run a business here (Elgin Handles) and that his family still lives in the community and proud to be part of St. Thomas as well.”
Kerry said it was “very emotional” for him, the second time he has been at such a ceremony. The first was in 2006 when the same banner was hung inside the Air Canada Centre.
Kerry, with his wife Anne, is pictured above in 2017 with a replica of the Stanley Cup presented to Day by the Leafs’ organization.
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And a reminder, I can be heard weekday afternoons as news anchor and reporter on 94.1 myFM in St. Thomas. As always, your comments and input are appreciated.
