Once upon a time in a lovely hillside village there lived an enterprising & socially concerned mother & daughter that wanted to make their village a better, kinder and more generous place to live. This dynamic duo single handily garnered several hundred signatures in effort to draw much needed political attention to matters that were beyond their control. Their petition requested to have the sidewalks extended to the community center and later followed by a second petition to run a sidewalk from the Bethel House driveway to McColl drive. This was just one small step in their quest to making their village more habitable and modestly more beautiful.
The new over head street lights, the road widening at the villages south end and improvement to road shoulder on the north end were other commendable long term improvements initiated by this dynamic duo. The solar powered radar signs on McLaughlin road are but more modern versions of their continuing initiatives.
The genesis for these modestly radical ideas on Village Beautification was the by-product of the daughter needing 40 high school community service hours and her mom being petitioned by the then President of the Inglewood Residents Association requesting her to being a professional speaker on behalf of the group regarding the development of the Riverdale farm subdivision. Talking professionally at several public meetings regarding the allocation of land on the 23 acre parcel helped curtail the requested number of homes to less than 1/2 from 144 to 71. Subsequently creating a more bucolic setting of homes. Which was more in keeping with the original village aesthetics & design. The ideas for the sidewalk extension, better street lighting & more was a natural progression of these public forums.
Like all good fairy tales, it would not be complete without the advent of a miserly wicked witch. Who shamelessly tried to claim the conceptual genesis of these modest infrastructure upgrades and wantonly tried to claim all credit for the work & efforts of many others. This inherent character flaw was so zesty that it was beyond her capabilities to write a university bound letter of recommendation for this Ontario scholar.
Fortunately, like all good tales, karma saved the day and swept that wicked witch to afar off land and the village was saved from her insipid touch.
Original request attached – fairy tale