Earlier this week, I noticed that one of the agenda item's for the recent Woolwich council meeting was to approve borrowing $3.72 million to pay for the outstanding balance on the new community centre and the townhall renovations. A little voice in my head whispered, "hooray," hoping this meant the Township had decided to look elsewhere than the destruction of our woods for the funds it needed.

Well, not quite. The Observer reports that, while they did approve this debenture through the Region,
"There is, however, one remaining issue: the township is depending on $1.6 million from the sale of surplus properties as part of the financing package. The larger assets include the old township halls and the former Elmira pool property, but most contentious is a plan to sell part of Victoria Glen Park as a site for residential development in Elmira’s north end. In the wake of strong public opposition, the township is now looking at alternatives for replacing funds expected from that development. A report is due later this month."

So, we still have to convince the Township councillors that cutting down those trees for development, and thereby rendering the rest of the woods virtually inaccessible for use by the public, is not acceptable. They have to know that there are huge community, environmental, economic, aesthetic, heritage reasons to re-zone the woods as permanent parkland - and not to sacrifice it for their building projects after the fact.

(Township Council contact information is available in the links on the right.)