Bayfield residents and visitors celebrated the completion of the Main Street Revitalization on Saturday.
Bayfield ward councillor Bill Whetstone says the project had been discussed for several years before he got to council nine years ago. He says even then, they were having problems with standing water and sloppy sidewalks. He says each council over the years did their bit to move the project along and the last council passed the motion to go forward, and the current council found the money to get it done.
Whetstone says the project could have been done in one year, but they did it over two seasons.
“We did it over two seasons because we shut down through summer so as not to affect the businesses as much as possible because we were doing this during COVID, which didn't help, so we had to come up with a plan to make sure that the stores will still able to stay open and that people could still maintain the stores," Whetstone said.
Whetstone says the project could not have been as successful as it was without the cooperation of everyone involved and one of their challenges was to make the improvements they did, without losing the heritage flavour that makes the Main Street so unique. Whetstone says there are a couple of features that really stand out for him. The first one is the Hydro wires.
“When we did the consulting with the residents that was number one, bury the Hydro wires so we could grow that tree canopy that used to be there years and years ago. There was a tree canopy o both sides and in some places actually stretched across the road. And the other one was the sidewalks. That was one of our biggest challenges," shared Whetstone.
Whetstone says it was important that the new sidewalks looked as much as possible like the old dirt and stone sidewalks. He says the coloured aggregate that's there now is perfect and the sidewalks are now accessible for anyone with mobility issues. He adds they've already seen more people with mobility issues on the Main Street.
The project was funded in part by the Government of Canada, through the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario, the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs through the Rural Economic Development Program and also made possible by the work from past Council, the community and staff. The only thing missing from the celebration was the rain that was forecast for the entire afternoon. No one complained.
