Jim McDonald, Dundas

Things are looking up in Dundas.

The federal government has donated $500,000 to kick-start the Dundas EcoPark on the derelict Velhuis property along the banks of the Desjardins Canal. There is the possibility of a micro brewery coming to the town to add diversity and interest for tourists.

Because the city found extra money in the kitty, some of the disgustingly bone-jarring residential streets in Olde Dundas have been given a new asphalt coating, which appears to be just cosmetic, but better than nothing.

The museum and main street art gallery are being infused with mega dollars to upgrade or expand their facilities.

If money can be raised by parents, Central Public School will receive a fantastic new schoolyard in the near future.

A new park will be created on Hatt Street near the new condos, making a lush green space available to everyone. Imaginative thinking has created a little natural skating rink at Witherspoon Park for local kids this winter.

Cactus Festival is being infused with new life under a new volunteer head, determined to shake it out of its lethargy. And Centennial Desjardins Park may soon resemble a summer bride if plans work out to plant 40 cherry trees on its grassy expanse, thus giving it some life.

Now, if only residents in Olde Dundas would rise up in righteous anger over the short-sighted public school board’s decision to close Parkside High School — the ideal location for an upgraded high school — and stop this planning insanity.

People with school-age children would fall over each other to live where kids can walk to their own high school instead of riding buses.
Losing our high school through bureaucratic bungling should not be allowed to happen.