"We are alone, absolutely alone, on this chance planet; and amid all the forms of life that surround us, not one, excepting the dog, has made an alliance with us." ~ Maurice Maeterlinck (Aug. 29, 1862 - May 6, 1949) Belgium playwright, poet.
Saturday, August 2, 2014
Wednesday, July 30, 2014
July 30, 2014
29 Talbot Street,
Cayuga, Ontario.
To: Mayor Ken Hewitt - Haldimand County Council
cc: Councillor Fred Morison - Haldimand County, Ward 2
Subject: Open letter re: Parking in Cayuga
As we are sure you are aware, there is a petition circulating asking that Haldimand County Council purchase or lease property for the purpose of a public parking lot in the Village of Cayuga.
Our very survival as a small used bookshop in Cayuga depends at this point on the availability of parking for potential customers. Our building at the corner of Talbot (Hwy 3) and Cayuga Streets includes tenants who claim four street parking spaces on the Cayuga Street side of the bookshop. The wrecking yard adjacent to our building can claim as many as six or seven parking spaces for plated and unplated vehicles ~ not to mention the frontage that the yard takes up along both streets.
The parking spaces on Talbot Street are well signed as two-hour and snow-route parking. We feel that the parking spaces on Cayuga Street need to be signed as two-hour parking as well and two-hour parking spaces need to be enforced. Complicating the ease of parking at the bookshop door is the dangerous left turn onto Talbot from Ouse.
It is our observation that Caledonia, Hagersville and Dunnville have designated public-parking lots that are convenient to the shops and services. We understand that sometime in the future Cayuga may have limited parking available in the area of the existing fire station; however, a parking lot on Highway 3 close to the downtown businesses would serve the visitors, tourists, businesses, rental tenants, residents and service organizations, encouraging economic development. Available for sale is lot #15, Talbot Street West -- the property between the Royal Canadian Legion and the former Cayuga Hotel. It sits as a derelict eyesore, a constant reminder to those of us committed to improving our village. The location is highly visible, easily accessible to traffic coming from all directions and if converted to a public parking lot would relieve the current parking issues and work in concert with the planned downtown revitalization.
We have personally witnessed over the ten years that we have been in business the squabbling over ownership of parking spaces. It has been a comment on our lack of planning and has caused headaches for struggling shops in the downtown area.
We ask for your full support in the urgency for a parking lot with proper signage that would encourage existing business owners to stay and act as a signal to potential businesses that we are looking toward a future in Cayuga with a vibrant, attractive core. We envision a revitalized village with walkways, streets and shops where residents can proudly welcome visitors.
Thank you for your immediate attention and continued support.
Sincerely,
John & Lorna Walker
The Neat Little Bookshop 905.772.5997 or 905.577.5635
www.theneatlittlebookshop.blogspot.com
29 Talbot Street,
Cayuga, Ontario.
To: Mayor Ken Hewitt - Haldimand County Council
cc: Councillor Fred Morison - Haldimand County, Ward 2
Subject: Open letter re: Parking in Cayuga
As we are sure you are aware, there is a petition circulating asking that Haldimand County Council purchase or lease property for the purpose of a public parking lot in the Village of Cayuga.
Our very survival as a small used bookshop in Cayuga depends at this point on the availability of parking for potential customers. Our building at the corner of Talbot (Hwy 3) and Cayuga Streets includes tenants who claim four street parking spaces on the Cayuga Street side of the bookshop. The wrecking yard adjacent to our building can claim as many as six or seven parking spaces for plated and unplated vehicles ~ not to mention the frontage that the yard takes up along both streets.
The parking spaces on Talbot Street are well signed as two-hour and snow-route parking. We feel that the parking spaces on Cayuga Street need to be signed as two-hour parking as well and two-hour parking spaces need to be enforced. Complicating the ease of parking at the bookshop door is the dangerous left turn onto Talbot from Ouse.
It is our observation that Caledonia, Hagersville and Dunnville have designated public-parking lots that are convenient to the shops and services. We understand that sometime in the future Cayuga may have limited parking available in the area of the existing fire station; however, a parking lot on Highway 3 close to the downtown businesses would serve the visitors, tourists, businesses, rental tenants, residents and service organizations, encouraging economic development. Available for sale is lot #15, Talbot Street West -- the property between the Royal Canadian Legion and the former Cayuga Hotel. It sits as a derelict eyesore, a constant reminder to those of us committed to improving our village. The location is highly visible, easily accessible to traffic coming from all directions and if converted to a public parking lot would relieve the current parking issues and work in concert with the planned downtown revitalization.
We have personally witnessed over the ten years that we have been in business the squabbling over ownership of parking spaces. It has been a comment on our lack of planning and has caused headaches for struggling shops in the downtown area.
We ask for your full support in the urgency for a parking lot with proper signage that would encourage existing business owners to stay and act as a signal to potential businesses that we are looking toward a future in Cayuga with a vibrant, attractive core. We envision a revitalized village with walkways, streets and shops where residents can proudly welcome visitors.
Thank you for your immediate attention and continued support.
Sincerely,
John & Lorna Walker
The Neat Little Bookshop 905.772.5997 or 905.577.5635
www.theneatlittlebookshop.blogspot.com
 |
| Lot Opposite GALLERY WILLIAM BIDDLE on Talbot St. |
Tuesday, July 29, 2014
 |
| Day of 1000 Canoes 2013 ~ York |
~ Pierre Berton, author and television personality, quoted by Dick Brown in The Canadian, Dec. 22, 1973. [John Robert Colombo's FAMOUS LASTING WORDS, 2000]
"In John Robert Colombo's Canadian Quotations, Pierre Berton is quoted saying "a Canadian is someone who knows how to make love in a canoe." Pierre says he didn't say it, or if he did he took it from someone else, but whoever the authority is, if that's the test, I fail. I do know how to gunwale a canoe...portage it, right it without getting out of the water, and sail it home with my hockey sweater tied to a paddle. But make love? You got me."
~ Peter Gzowski, journalist. The Private Voice: A Journal of Reflections (1988). [John Robert Colombo's FAMOUS LASTING WORDS, 2000]
Monday, July 28, 2014
 |
| Grand River Canoe Festival 2013 |
~ Sir George Simpson, Governor, Hudson's Bay Company, quoted by John S. Galbraith in The Beaver.
"A really good paddle should come alive in your hands and put a smile on your face."
~ Ray Kettlewell, master paddle-maker, characteristic remark, Canoe Expo, Etobicoke, Ont., April 8, 1994.
"God first created the canoe and then thought up the ideal country to go with it."
~ Attributed to paddler Bill Mason by Donna Carter in "Peterborough Canoe Museum Makes a Big Splash," The Globe and Mail, Nov. 16, 1991.
[Tomorrow: Canadian writer, Pierre Berton's comments on canoes.]
Quotations from John Robert Colombo's FAMOUS LASTING WORDS, Douglas & McIntyre, 2000.
Sunday, July 27, 2014
Thought for Today ~
Something has become sadly apparent to us. Hoping that we are missing something. Are there no Cancer Society volunteer drivers in the Cayuga area? A friend who has been supportive of the bookshop since the beginning is unfortunately facing many trips to the city from Cayuga and so far ~ other than ourselves and a couple friends ~ her drivers are coming from Port Colborne, Grimsby and Dunnville.
George Eliot's* At Set of Sun comes to mind.
If you sit down at set of sun
And count the acts that you have done,
And, counting, find
One self-denying deed, one word
That eased the heart of him who heard --
One glance most kind,
That fell like sunshine where it went --
Then you may count that day well spent.
But, if, through all the livelong day,
You've cheered no heart, by yea or nay --
If, through it all
You've nothing done that you can trace
That brought the sunshine to one face--
No act most small
That helped some soul and nothing cost --
Then count that day as worse than lost.
*Mary Ann Evans, Victorian novelist, journalist, poet (1819 - 1880), used the pen name George Eliot in order that her writing be taken seriously.
[Driver reimbursement information available at www.cancer.ca "Information Driver Centre"
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