A colourful, circular sculpture surveying the cars and trucks rushing past on Highbury Avenue is a whimsical reminder of the city’s railway heritage while cleverly linking it with the industrial revolution underway in St. Thomas.Titled Imagination Station, the 25-foot-high wooden toy train is local artist Briony Douglas’ first permanent public art commission (seen below with St. Thomas Mayor Joe Preston).
The Woodstock native has had her installations appear at cultural institutions and link with international brands across North America, including Cadillac, Adidas, American Express, Shake Shack, and the Hockey Hall of Fame.
And now her latest work graces the gateway to the city’s industrial park, Yarmouth Yards.
Imagination Station was assembled and unveiled at a ceremony Thursday afternoon at the intersection of Dennis Road and Highbury Avenue.
“My work is rooted in the idea that familiar objects carry extraordinary emotional weight,” observed Douglas.
“I wanted to create something that made me happy in childhood, which was my wooden toy train. And then also the reason I decided to do it in a circle was I wanted to speak to the past, connecting to the future. So that circle moment. And that was really important to me.
“Will I ever build anything in a circle again? Probably not at 25 feet tall, but this is cool enough to last me a lifetime.”
In an interesting turn of events, the City of St. Thomas approached Douglas following her work with the Professional Women’s Hockey League.“So I made a piece for the PWHL sponsored by Royal, and it was made with the first six inaugural women’s teams’ hockey sticks. So that currently lives in the Hockey Hall of Fame.
“Part of my work is very much about empowering women and especially women in sports. So it’s pretty cool that that piece is what caught the eye to build this.”
As is the case with so many things in life, some assembly was required, noted Douglas.
“This is meant to make people stop, imagine, have hope and be happy. I want to be the reason in someone’s day that you smile, and I think that that’s really important, and this is beyond an honour to be able to add to your community.”
“We have been here since 6 a.m. And we wrapped up around 1.30 p.m., but I also have an amazing team that works with me. So this was built in four different pieces. The bottom piece hopefully fitted into the cement piece. At 10,000 pounds, we couldn’t put it together until the day of. So thankfully it fit.”
Douglas observed, “The wooden train exists almost universally in our collective memory. By enlarging it to an architectural scale, it becomes something entirely different, not simply an object of nostalgia, but a place for reflection, gathering and shared experience.
“I hope this sculpture encourages people to pause, reconnect with their own stories and consider how public art can transform the way we experience a city.”
At the ribbon-cutting ceremony, Sean Dyke, CEO of St. Thomas Economic Development Corp., pointed out, from a personal perspective, “We’re standing right now in what is likely the best industrial development in southern Ontario.”He continued, “And as we stand here, this is going to change so much in the next number of years as companies choose St. Thomas for their developments. And they’re always going to have this (the sculpture) here to welcome them as their employees and their customers and their suppliers come into our community.”
St. Thomas Mayor Joe Preston added, “The art that we’ve done in St. Thomas is done on purpose and sometimes done fairly whimsical because we have a huge industrial base and that isn’t always really pretty to look at.
“So to add some prettiness to the art and some thoughtful thinking to the art, I thank you.”
Douglas closed out the ceremony with, “This is meant to make people stop, imagine, have hope and be happy. I want to be the reason in someone’s day that you smile, and I think that that’s really important, and this is beyond an honour to be able to add to your community. Kudos to you for the amount of art and people that you support here; it is incredible.”
“Unlike much industrial park construction across North America, where roads and buildings meet minimal landscaping requirements, Yarmouth Yards has been shaped into a green, welcoming corridor meant to highlight that economic growth and community space can coexist.”
The detractors wasted little time checking in on social media.
A comment on Facebook from Leith Coghlin was typical: “I’ll try and ask this as diplomatically as I can possibly muster: What in the Actual F is this?
“Multi-billion dollar industrial yard and we good ‘ole Canadians are getting cute about it.
“Is this a federal Department of Canadian Heritage original design?”
Lindsey Ostrosser shot back, “An amazing artist being able to display their beautiful work in our city! So cool that the city did this to acknowledge the history! Stop being a Scrooge!”
A media release from the city notes that the art installation sits along the Highbury Avenue corridor, a portion of the site deliberately developed as parkland.
It will incorporate walking trails and transform stormwater management ponds into naturalized wildlife habitat.
“It blends industrial functions with park-like areas for the neighbourhood and connects multi-use trails to the city network.
“Unlike much industrial park construction across North America, where roads and buildings meet minimal landscaping requirements, Yarmouth Yards has been shaped into a green, welcoming corridor meant to highlight that economic growth and community space can coexist.
“It’s a model the city plans to carry forward.”
And so, with the Imagination Station art installation housed in one of these park-like areas of Yarmouth Yards, then yes, it absolutely is right at home.
Sometimes you have to take a deep breath and be thankful that warm childhood memories have not been obliterated by the pettiness and corruptness of the times which we inhabit.
That we can look at a sculpture and see a toy train whose cargo is joy and not a tin rocket laden with contempt.
Is the giveaway not right there in the title of the art installation, Imagination Station?
What in the Actual F, indeed!
THE RE-ROUTING OF HWY. 3?
A new Highway 3 corridor may be in the works to improve connectivity between St. Thomas and Aylmer.
The Ontario Ministry of Transportation has retained Stantec Consulting Ltd. to undertake a Planning, Preliminary Design, and Class Environmental Assessment.
Stantec made a presentation to Elgin County council on Tuesday (Aug. 11) morning.
The purpose of the study is to identify transportation improvements to Highway 3, including a new arterial road connecting to the St. Thomas Expressway extension, known as Technology Trail, to improve transportation connections between St. Thomas, including Yarmouth Yards, and communities to the east.
Looking at future operating conditions on Highway 3, with additional population and employment growth in the study area:
• Highway 3 will be over capacity by 2051
• Centennial Road/Highway 3 intersection will be over capacity in both the morning and afternoon peak periods
• Traffic signals will be required to provide gaps for sideroad traffic to enter or cross Highway 3 (Yarmouth Centre Road and Springwater Road)
• Signalized intersections in Aylmer will be over capacity during peak periods
• Highway 3 traffic will likely shift to other municipal roads
• Centennial Road/Highway 3 intersection will be over capacity in both the morning and afternoon peak periods
• Traffic signals will be required to provide gaps for sideroad traffic to enter or cross Highway 3 (Yarmouth Centre Road and Springwater Road)
• Signalized intersections in Aylmer will be over capacity during peak periods
• Highway 3 traffic will likely shift to other municipal roads
According to the Stantec report, one of the five options is expanded/new non-road infrastructure initiatives, including new or improved local transit service for public transportation, increased freight rail services for goods movement, providing inter-regional transit and passenger rail and/or provincial transitways through new/increased services.
However, the report advises that this option does not fully address the problems for the study area. Opportunities for improving local transit service (bus) will be reviewed with the municipalities.Instead, the preferred option being carried forward calls for a new corridor (shown in blue on the map) that would be routed north of the existing Hwy. 3, with five alternate routes (shown in yellow) bypassing the Town of Aylmer.
The first of three public information sessions will be held on Aug. 26 , from 4 to 7 p.m. at the East Elgin Community Complex – Blueline Room, 531 Talbot Street West in Aylmer.
MUNICIPAL ELECTION UPDATE
The deadline for filing nomination papers is 2 p.m. this coming Friday, Aug. 21.
The most interesting development this week is the possibility that Dennis Crevits will shift his attention from deputy mayor to mayor in Central Elgin and challenge Morgaine Griffin.
He ran for that position in the 2022 municipal election and lost to Andrew Sloan by just over 600 votes.
The second part of this scenario would see TVDSB trustee Meagan Ruddock contend for the deputy mayor post.
Both are expected to file their papers in the coming week.
In Southwold, Grant Jones is running again for the mayor’s post while Justin Pennings is seeking re-election as deputy mayor. Both are uncontested at this point.
In St. Thomas, Jeff Kohler and Aidan Frederick are the two mayoral candidates.
The remaining seven councillors have filed their papers along with newcomers Joe Docherty Jr., Brian May, Kyle Yates, Kay Vaughan, Geoff Mountenay, Mike Brisson and Chris Deslandes.
Bob Pate and Melissa Knott are running to fill the two TVDSB trustee positions. On the LDCSB side, long-time trustee Bill Hall has withdrawn his nomination papers, leaving Rodney resident Stephen Huver as the lone candidate.
CANDIDATE PROFILE: KYLE YATES, CITY OF ST. THOMAS
We continue with our profiles of the candidates running in the Oct. 26 municipal vote.
This week, we profile Kyle Yates, 27-years-old, born and raised in St. Thomas. He has been employed in manufacturing for about 10 years. Before that, he attended Fanshawe College in London for computer programming, but switched out for that for CNC machining at Fanshawe’s St. Thomas campus. He is now a part-time student at Western, taking political science.
We began the conversation by asking about the origin of his keen interest in politics.“It’s been something that I’ve been passionate about for more than half my life,” admitted Yates. It’s something that I deeply care about. I’ve cared about this city my whole life. I want to give back to it the opportunities that it’s given to me. So politically, I think that’s the way to do it.”
His father, Russ Yates, was a staff sergeant in the St. Thomas Police Service.
“He’s supportive,” suggested Yates, when asked about family reaction to his running for office. I think he has a similar opinion to some others out there who have this opinion that I’m a bit younger.
“But I see that as a benefit where I represent a subset of St. Thomas that doesn’t normally feel represented. And I think I can bring about bold, effective change with that as a driving motivator.
“I think that’s a common sentiment even with people that aren’t young. They feel like they’ve been kind of left out, and I’m running partly to say that that’s not the case, that there is somebody out there who can represent those views.”
For Yates, housing and housing affordability are key priorities as he campaigns.
“Even the current mayor, Joe Preston, says that there’s a massive need for new housing supply.
“And I wholeheartedly agree with that, but I think going about it in a smart way is really the key.
“One part of my platform to address affordable housing is to incentivize builders to build higher density and affordable units by rearranging the way that we use our development costs. So lowering development costs for affordable units is part of my plan. And speeding up the process.”
We next delved into transit.
“If you look at the transit master plan that the city has developed, you see that there’s a rapidly increasing need for attention to our public transit.
“Another big thing is that I would like to see is a central park in the railway district. We used to have one in front of the CASO station.”
“My whole platform is based around the idea that St. Thomas is expected to reach a population of 80,000 by 2050. And in the transit master plan itself, it says that in order to prepare for that over the next 25 years, we’re going to be spending $500 million on infrastructure costs like roads.
“And when you break that down over 25 years, that’s $20 million per year, which is pretty much the entire city budget. So either we’re going to see roads built and maintained at a cost where we have no more money for anything else. Or we’re going to say, yes, we have money for some other things at the cost of our roads not being built.
“So we need to incentivize people to get onto our public transit in order to reduce the need and reliance on those builds and that infrastructure cost.
“And one way we can do that is to make buses free, whether it’s all buses or just a north-south and east-west corridor, especially down Talbot Street, because when we reach 80,000 residents, Talbot Street’s our main street. And that’s already confirmed it will not be widened. That’s going to be a huge congestion point. So we need to get people off the road and into buses.”
The city’s heritage and history are an important consideration for Yates.
“I’ve spoken to people at the Elgin County Railway Museum and the CASO station in terms of reinforcing the history and heritage of the town.
“I’ve been talking to them about ways that that could be achievable. I plan on talking to council members, MPs, MPPs. I plan on talking to the Parks and Rec Department just to see what can be done to expand access to the community programs that we need to see expanded.
“If I am elected, I’d really like to stress and advocate for additional grant funding for the railway museum and CASO station. Whether that’s grants to maintain facades or whether there are certain railway heritage grants.
“Another big thing is that I would like to see is a central park in the railway district. We used to have one in front of the CASO Station.
“Whether it means working with Doug Tarry behind the CASO station, or whether it means putting a park south of the railway museum. I feel like there’s a couple different avenues to check out.
“I feel like council hasn’t paid enough attention to that area of town in recent years.”
“I’m not sure if I have a good chance or a bad chance. But what I can say is what I’ve seen from the community reaching out to me is that the people are ready for some fresh blood and fresh ideas. And that just invigorates me. That gets me going.”
Yates continued, “People are ready for change. People are ready for progress. And I think that’s exactly what I represent. I think I have bold and fresh ideas that will do exactly that. So you want to be part of the solution and not the problem.
“I feel politics has an impact on every single aspect of everybody’s life.”
We circled back to housing and housing supply.
“One thing that’s on my platform is introducing the idea of a vacancy tax where those units that are left sitting, the owners have to pay a fee for that.”
With his proposed 3 per cent vacancy tax, Yates is confident millions of dollars in revenue could be generated.
“Even if it is only hundreds of thousands of dollars, we could reinvest it into programs run by Indwell or like the YMCA’s Project Tiny Hope.
Yates admitted he is touched by the support he is receiving in his campaign.
“The outpouring of support that I’ve seen since I announced has been really touching to see. And the fact that a lot of people are resonating really well with a lot of my platform points is refreshing.”
He agrees social media will play a key role in his campaign, but it will not be his sole focus. He has been active in posting videos to his Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/yatesforcouncil/
“I’m not going to discount any other form of campaigning. Social media is definitely a major tool. So I’m going to be utilizing that. But as we speak, I’m designing and printing flyers and business cards and lawn signs. I’m going to be going around in the next couple of months knocking on as many doors as I can and spreading the word.”
He was quick to announce his intention to seek a seat in the council chamber at city hall, and he attributed that to excitement.
“I’m ready to spread my ideas and spread the message, and I’m ready to get people active early. I don’t think these are points that should be brought up late in the race. I think these are points that need to be explained and thought about while there’s time.
“I think when I announced, I was definitely nervous. Even now, having this interview, I don’t know really what my chances are at the end of the day. I’m not sure if I have a good chance or a bad chance. But what I can say is what I’ve seen from the community reaching out to me is that the people are ready for some fresh blood and fresh ideas. And that just invigorates me. That gets me going.
“I think if this doesn’t pan out, it won’t be the last you hear of me, that’s for sure. I do believe in myself and my ideas.”
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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.
Interesting column as always ! Are any of the city candidates or Central Elgin candidates talking about Hwy. 4 ? It is becoming a nightmare already from Elm street to Port Stanley ! If the Psychiatric lands are ever developed and more housing in Shaw valley and Port Stanley won’t this Highway have more than reached capacity. When I approached the County engineer about this I was told it has not reached a volume where actions need to be taken . Shouldn’t this be addressed ahead of further development as they are doing with Highway 3.