The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
By Jonathon Naylor Where's the love for downtown Flin Flon's newest gathering place and its lofty Christmas tree? So much time and effort put in by so many dedicated people, yet so many unappreciative comments about what should be two celebrated additions to our fair city. To be honest with you, I am rather startled by the nasty feedback I've picked up in the community chatter relative to Pioneer Square, which opened at the corner of First and Main more than a year ago now. The same goes for the 28-ft. artificial Christmas tree, officially lit Monday with Santa, Mayor George Fontaine and others on hand, that now stands in the centre of the park. An all-too-common misconception is that the City of Flin Flon paid for both the park and the tree with your, my and every other taxpayer's money. That's led to an endless stream of blunt observations as to how the city could have put all that money to better use. Fix the roads! Build a new pool! Lower our taxes! I would probably agree with some of those sentiments IF the city HAD actually funded Pioneer Square or the tree. But contrary to what you may have heard, they didn't. Instead, the cash came from fundraising, from donations, from grants courtesy of the likes of Hudbay and the Flin Flon 75th anniversary celebrations. It came from the elbow grease of volunteers who continue to love and believe in this community. True, the city did lend some cash upfront to help the Main Street Business Builders Committee buy the tree, but it was a LOAN, not a GIFT. And yes the city has agreed to keep up Pioneer Square, but how much maintenance will a park made largely of brick and concrete with no grass need? I know not everyone is down on Pioneer Square or its latest seasonal ornament. The positive comments still outweigh the bad; it's just that those whose opinions fall into the latter category tend to make their voices heard rather loudly and crassly. It's too bad, really. All that can be said to the critics of these projects is that if they really want money spent on 'better' things, they need to do their own fundraising for whatever those better things might be. Pioneer Square adds an elegant new flavour to the downtown core. The Christmas tree instantly puts you into the holiday spirit whenever you walk or drive by. Sure, these projects cost a lot of money. But it wasn't taxpayer money. And the end result, to my mind, is priceless. Local Angle runs Fridays.
