Opinion: Grimsby in right place, right time

By Mike Williscraft
NewsNow

Tons of things going on, so I’m going to split this offering up to cover maximum ground.

I got in touch with Major Richard Robinson, Commanding officer of the 62 Grimsby Phantom Squadron, Royal Canadian Air Cadets when researching information on this year’s cenotaph vigil.

He noted he had a cadet who has been taking a writing course and may want to work on something.

That is how Harmony Deslauriers ended up submitting an article on the vigil. Great and appreciated!

I did not want to edit her work too much, but I had an extra paragraph I could not fit and it is important, so here it is:
The cadet program is open to all youth between the ages of 12-18 years old with a focus on leadership, citizenship and healthy living. If you are ready for the challenge and interested in joining, visit our website at 62phantomaircadets.ca!

The cadet program in our area is first rate and I would encourage anyone interested to give them a look.
Thanks for the effort Richard and Harmony.

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Two events went gangbusters last week and good on organizers.

Grimsby Museum board hosted its annual dinner at the Casablanca Inn with none other than homegrown master magician Nick Wallace delivering on high expectations to a crowd triple the size of last year’s.

Great work to all involved.

The night before, Grimsby Firefighters Association hosted its annual turkey roll at the Peach King Centre and topped its best fundraising year ever by $3,000 as they generated $12,000 to go to various programs they support.

Niagara West is an incredibly generous area in which to live and these two events are shining examples. This Friday night, Lincoln Fire’s turkey roll is set to go at a new location – the Lincoln Centre in Beamsville. Check out their ad on the preceding page and good luck to all involved there!!!

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A considerable amount of time was spent Monday night talking about the grant submission for the Peach King Centre at Monday’s council meeting and rightfully so.

It is true one should not look a gift horse in the mouth, in this case, the gift horse being the federal government. It was said a 2/3s funding program is rare. They sure are. I don’t recall one off the top of my head. Yes, there have been 1/3-1/3-1/3 with feds, province and local municipality but this is even better than that.

It is a very good thing the Grimsby Energy Board pulled a rabbit out of its hat on the biodigester sale or it is likely the Town would not have been in a position to take on any significant financial exposure for several years until they worked out from under potential debts.

The move to get a town-run gymnasium can do nothing but good for the community in the long run. Anything that can get away from dependence on District School Board of Niagara for gym use is a good thing. No doubt Grimsby Basketball Association and a bunch of other user groups must be stoked at the prospect of having a new base of operations.

Overall, the timing could not better, too, with the Recreation Master Plan having just been completed. Those documents can pay for themselves in instances just like this as most grants require background work to determine eligibility.

When a long-planned document can be produced which highlights that nine of the top 10 needs identified in the community via study can be filled with a project, that speaks volumes in terms of support.

Governments at any level don’t like it when Johnny Come Lately shows up with his hand out for a quickly made up proposal generated after a grant was announced. That is not to say that important projects do not come up on short notice, but municipalities often try to sneak a spot at the trough.

It is ALL about timing.

Look at West Lincoln. Without question, when one looks at the need for a new community centre there a few years ago, their whole project would have generated two-thirds funding under this grant program.

No, they could not wait, so no finger pointing or blame of any kind. It is just the luck of the draw in terms of timing. Grimsby is in the right place, right time to take advantage.