I love to travel. I also love my home. I find it
fascinating, when traveling, to realize that in most cases, the places I want
to see and the things I want to do are all connected to the local culture. I
want to eat what the locals eat, hang out where they do, and enjoy a glimpse of
their daily lives. Maybe we should try to do the same in North Grenville. We
could become the prime tourism destination for people visiting the Nation’s
Capital who really want to see small town Canada.
When my husband the Farmer was the Professor, he took part
in a tour of a community in Nova Scotia that had embraced tourism. It seemed
like everyone in the community was opening their home and business to visitors
in some way. There were bed and breakfast spots that offered great trails for
hiking and photography. Some catered to those who wanted to learn how to cook
the local cuisine. Others were located on farms, where guests were invited to take
part in the daily routine of care for the animals and harvesting vegetables for
dinner.
It’s like when you go to Europe and you take a tour of
cheese factories, vineyards, cafes, and scenic areas. You want to see and
experience the best that the region has to offer. We can do that. We have
plenty to offer.
If you operate a local business, be it a hobby farm, an
Adirondack chair factory or a maple sugar bush, I would encourage you to
explore ways in which you can offer tours, workshops and hands-on experiences
for tourists. Then get connected with local travel agents, tourism websites,
blogs and accommodations.
As for making our area more hospitable to tourists, there
are a few obvious things that we need to consider. We need a large, affordable
hotel. I understand that once again, a feasibility study is being conducted to
prove that we have the traffic to support this kind of business. It’s not like
in bygone eras where every village had a hotel. Now you have to have
sustainable traffic flow of something like 50,000 people a year in order to
make it cost effective and profitable.
Of course, turning the dorm rooms of the former Kemptville
College into a hotel seems like an obvious conclusion. I don’t know what the
plans are yet for that building but it seems silly that we can’t take advantage
of those existing accommodations – especially during Kemptville Live Music
Festival weekend, sports tournaments and other local events. Something tells me
that if we were in Europe, our still-useful buildings would already be
repurposed. Europeans are very good at recycling real property.
Once we have room for people to sleep, we need them to park
somewhere. If the school board manages to find a buyer for our old high school
on Prescott Street and it is deemed unfeasible to turn it into condos or a
retirement home or something, they might consider a paid parking lot. Goodness
knows we need parking downtown. I realize those bump outs were meant to slow
down through traffic but they ate up some of our parking spaces. Not ideal.
Finally, I would like to see what the plans are for the
Bridge Street bridge. There was a time when we could drive small boats right
under it. Now the creekbed needs to be dredged to make room for the engines.
But if we are looking at rebuilding the bridge anyway, wouldn’t it make sense
to look at other options as well? We once had big steamships coming into the
centre of Kemptville on a regular basis. Has the south branch of the Rideau
changed so much? Imagine if we could lure boaters in off the Rideau to the
centre of Old Town for lunch, or to stay overnight like they do in Merrickville
and Manotick.
I think we need to entertain the thoughts of someone who can
see the big picture. Dredge the creek, rebuild the bridge in a way that allows
boat traffic, expand the existing dock. Businesses will spring up again in
downtown Kemptville. We will need a public bathroom facility and an electrical
source at the water’s edge. There is plenty of room at Curry Park.
Am I the only one crazy enough to imagine this potential? We
could attract daytrippers to our town. We have plenty to offer.
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