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2 - Orono Weekly Times 1937 - 2012 · Celebrating 75 Years Subscriptions $38.09 + $1.91 GST = $40.00 per year. No Refunds. Publishing 48 issues annually at the office of publication. "We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Periodical Fund for our publishing activities." Wednesday, February 29, 2012 ORONO WEEKLY TIMES - 5310 Main St., P.O. Box 209, Orono, ON L0B 1M0 E-mail: oronotimes@rogers.com or Phone/Fax: 905-983-5301 Publisher/Editor Margaret Zwart Production and Display Advertising - Roxanne Johnston Classified/Sports - Sue Weigand The Orono Weekly Times welcomes letters to the editor on subjects of interest to our readers. Opinions expressed to the editor and articles are those of the writers and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Orono Weekly times. Letters must be signed and contain the address and phone number of the writer. Any letter considered unsuitable will not be acknowledged or returned. We reserve the right to edit for length, libel and slander. If your retail or classified ad appears for the first time, please check carefully. Notice of an error must be given before the next issue goes to print. The Orono Weekly Times will not be responsible for the loss or damage of such items. Embracing change Whether we like it or not, the world we live in is forever changing and the older we get the less likely we are to embrace change. Regardless we have to keep moving with the times, even though we recognize that not all change is good change. At Monday's General Purpose Committee Meeting, Ron Hooper, the owner of a long standing family business in the historic downtown section of Bowmanville, commented on what appears to be the further erosion of that main shopping area of Bowmanville. One of the banks is moving from the downtown core (corner of Division and King Street) to a new location at the corner of Liberty and Highway 2. Clarington's Director of Planning David Crome explained that the bank was looking for more space than was available at their current location, so they are building a new branch. The nature of banking has changed, banks offer more services than they did in the past, thus the need for more space, according to Crome. Councillors also dealt with an application at their Monday meeting from a bank looking to open up a branch office in a new plaza in at the corner of Scugog Street and Longworth Ave, a rapidly growing area in Bowmanville. This example of banks moving out to where their customers are, rather than maintaining one central branch in the downtown core is yet another relatively new concept. We have all been through communities with their downtown stores boarded up; long time family businesses closed up as their customers migrated to the big box store complexes developed on the edge of town where land is cheaper and they can offer lots of free parking. A few months ago we printed a Letter to the Editor from a gentleman representing a long standing Orono business, lamenting the fact that downtown Orono no longer offers the services it did in the past; hardware and grocery stores, a gas station etc, and in his opinion, has more than enough antique shops. The village of Orono has become the victim of changing shopping patterns. If the villagers had continued to support the long standing business. they would still be here. However the antique stores cater to a niche market, and stores that otherwise would be boarded are doing business. Of the three downtown cores in Clarington; Bowmanville, Newcastle and Orono, (as a former agricultural based community turned into a community of subdivision, Courtice does not have a central location which could be called a downtown core) Newcastle's downtown is the best example good change. We have witnessed some real positive development in the downtown core. While there was some resistance to the demolition of old buildings to make way for a new box style store at the four corners, it is generally accepted that the old buildings had deteriorated beyond repair. There is a new grocery store coming to town, and the rumour mill is rife with talk of more development. With architectural controls in place, the new developments are expected to mirror as much as possible the heritage look of the older buildings, especially the historic Community Hall. For the most part the new buildings are blending in well with the existing building stock, which would not have happened if the various organizations representing the village had not pushed for the architectural upgrades which the municipality then supported. New retail development in Newcastle has mainly been contained to the downtown core, and a wide range of services are available including a great library, all within walking distance. As the downtown fills up and retail space becomes scarcer, there will be a tendency to spread out along Highway 2. If there is anything we have learned from the development patterns of the past, this type of sprawling development does nothing to keep a downtown core vibrant. Orono's downtown took a big hit when the grocery store moved to a newly built location at the north end of town because of parking issues. They now have ten times more parking then they will ever need, but the new location does not provide great visibility. Downtown Newcastle has a few key parking lots, but until we learn to leave our cars at home parking will always be an issue to some degree in a downtown core. Change is coming whether we want it or not. We can waste our energy resisting change, or we can decide to recognize good change and help build on it. From The House At The Centre Of The Universe We should just stick with Canada's Wonderland by Tracy Tonkinson When it comes to vacation locations I am not usually a theme park kind of girl, but this week I found a few around the world that caught my eye. As 2012 is the bicentennial of the birth of Charles Dickens, a trip to Dickens' World would be just the thing. This weird and wonderful attraction was created in 2007 in Chatham, England where Dickens spent some of his childhood, later making it his adult home and using the dockyard town as inspiration in some of his most famous works, such as the Pickwick Papers. The park is exactly what you would expect if you have read any of Dickens' novels, though the treatment given to some of his characters is a little hair raising. You can ride the Great Expectations log flume, be scared in Ebenezer Scrooge's haunted house and play in the Fagin's Den play area. To sell you the effect that you are Oliver Twist there are Dickensian building façades, gas lamp street lights and actors roaming around in Victorian garb. If you are going to go all the way to the U.K. for a Victorian England experience, I recommend the better and more authentic Blists Hill Victorian Town in Telford, Shropshire. This amazing place has genuine cobbled streets, gas lights and real Victorian buildings you can go inside that have been brought from all over the midlands and arranged in a village setting that includes a chemist shop (think Shopper's Drug mart 1878), a shop that stocks only sweets the Victorians would have known and drink in the pub, paying with the Victorian pennies you bought from the bank teller who explains what the relative value of the coins were then and now. My favourite place is the print shop where you can buy a freshly printed newspaper with all the latest news from 1890, or get a post card to take home pointing out that electricity is not dangerous and therefore there is no need to worry about getting a shock from using the new fangled electric light switches. But England isn't everyone's cup of tea and if you want to visit not only another country but also another time period there is Holy Land Experience in Orlando, Florida which will take you back 2,000 years. You can walk through the Jerusalem Street Market, chat to the roman soldiers populating the park and experience watching a crucifixion recreated in all its gory tastelessness. I have to say this would not be my first choice of venue in Orlando, but each to their own. All nations have their own special quirks. The Danes have Bon Bon Land in Copenhagen, a kind of anal reaction to the more wholesome Legoland we all know and love. At Bon Bon Land you can enjoy the Skid Mark rollercoaster or ride the Farting Dog attraction. You can't make this stuff up! The French are building Napoleonland, named for the most famous of their sons whose exploits and ambitions set Europe on fire for twelve years. The attractions planned for completion by 2014 include a water show recreating the Battle of Trafalgar; WONDERLAND see page 4