President's Message
President’s Message to members of the Friends of East Lake
It’s
unusual to begin a President’s message with an apology, however, as you
know we’ve all been busy since the general meeting in June gathering
information and as much factual data as possible for the rezoning
application by Cottage Advisors, but I do apologize for being so late
in sending out my first communication to you.This rezoning request seems to have taken over the personality of the Friends of East Lake and has aged it some. I think the County has also lost its innocence. But this aging is not a mellowing, it’s a determination that we won’t sit back and have our home and heritage taken away from us by developers continuing to come into our County and saying “I want it, so you have to give it to me!”.
Athol Township and East Lake was a population of old families and friends, farmers, fishermen, and canning factory workers who shared their home every summer with people who came to also enjoy the fishing in East Lake, the dances at the Cove Beach, and jumping off the tower at Martin’s. Two of those summer attractions are gone but they’ve been replaced by different things to do – not necessarily better things, just different. But, regardless of what tourists – and locals – do in the summer in Athol, I have never heard an unkind word spoken against our visitors. I worked at Leavitt’s Dari Dip in Cherry Valley as well as three summers at the Park store at the Outlet beach, and each and every one of the people I served were thrilled to be in our home. In fact, they loved to visit so much that they all wanted to move here – and many did. And they are now our new friends and new families on East Lake.
And this leads me to what I find so disturbing about the Cottage Advisors development. It makes it appear that we don’t want people to come and enjoy our home any more – or that we’ve had enough and don’t want to share it. And that is wrong. I think the members of the Friends of East Lake will agree that a misconception has developed out of our working against building those 237 cottages. It’s not that we don’t want tourists in our backyard – we’ve always had tourists in our back, front, and side yard. But – and it’s a huge BUT – we do not agree that this is the right size or type of development for this property and that East Lake needs to be protected from this and future recreational development. East and West Lake are jewels of the County and should not become a cash cow for the municipality. And the County must take note and recognize that this is not the right size or type of development for any shoreland property. We’ve been let down and sold out by our Council and Mayor. We welcome our tourists, but we don’t have to grasp at every tourist dollar that can be squeezed down here from the 401 at the sake of losing our home and heritage.
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The County is changing and progressing at a pace we’ve never experienced before. But progress is not taking a pristine property and heritage woodlot and ruining it to build 237 cottages, progress is keeping those woods and not building those cottages. We’ve had excellent economic development without this suburb style intensification. The County will still have tourists streaming in – they will still come to see us, and all of those fun things to see and do, just like they always have. And, probably, some will love it so much, they will want to stay.
So let’s take our new maturity and knowledge and strive to maintain awareness of issues and concerns, and monitor that progress – for us, for the County, and for our visitors.
We are very, very lucky that the core group of directors stayed on to help Friends of East Lake during such a busy and difficult time, and I know I’ll be leaning on - and learning from - Carolyn Barton, Barbara Wyatt, and Anne Niccols, while two new Directors – Catherine Blakely and Donald Montgomery have loads to offer as they are both teachers and have all summer to help! And also to our great benefit, past president, John Imbeault, will continue to be closely involved with the health of East Lake. My personal mandate is to maintain the rural atmosphere and affordability of Prince Edward County, while still having a swim and a cold beer.
And, last but not least, thankyou to all of you – the members of Friends of East Lake.
See you on the Lake!
Linda Cole, UEL
613-476-3510
June, 2009