Dear honorable Mayor, Fellow councilors,
In regards’ to the YMCA, and its location, I thought I should share my opinion.
Look at the big picture.
We are a rapidly growing community, which you are aware.
We will need a new school or two. As well as the pool, we should be thinking of putting in a new ice pad or two. Ice time has always been an issue in our community. The success of the Winterhawks is fabulous and a great community gathering place for our residence in the winter. We should be looking at ways to use the YMCA proposal to expand on more winter activities.
Such as, a few basketball courts, the walking track is excellent and has definitely been needed. The basketball courts can be arranged in a way that it can also become volleyball, or dodge ball. Indoor soccer. If this YMCA is done right, this will be a long awaited community hub that will increase livability.
As to where this should go? It needs to be accessible to both our towns; It needs to be where the location of a school can be built. It should be close enough to a shopping outlet, and retail stores so parents, or visitors can do their shopping, while waiting for their children to finish their activity.
It needs to be close to restaurants, or have one in the YMCA.
If a new high school is built close to the YMCA then the students can walk to the YMCA. They can also walk to their sporting activity.
We need to think of what is being built and what can be built in the future.
How we can create a hub to meet the demands of our expanding and diverse community as a whole, centrally located in our beautiful Saugeen Shores.
We can also build a new conference center in this hub of activities, for our partners at Bruce Power. Keep this type of facility off the Port Elgin Beach, which is not central to our community of Saugeen Shores.
Perhaps add pathways that are multi purpose, walking in the summer, cross-country skiing in the winter. Southampton has huge potential for a developmental hub.
This is a large community, made up of Port Elgin and Southampton, with a huge potential to bring in economic growth and seasonal activities for all.
There should be a hub of community gatherings, sporting victories, and seasonal diversity.
Thank you for your time,
Resident, Patty Bowman
