- Anne Finlay-Stewart, Editor

St. Mary's High School students made an offer to the City's Community Services Committee that they could not resist. They propose to renew an often-graffitied storage building by the Mill Dam this May, with partnership and financial support from the Sydenham Sportsmen Association, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forests (MNRF) and the Bruce Grey Catholic District School Board (BGCDSB) and artist Billy Goodkat.

I'll let them tell you what they told the Committee before they received unanimous approval.

"Hello, I'm Josie, I'm Kiara and I'm Mackenzie.We are grade 10 students at St. Mary's High School, and this semester we're taking Ms. Maclellan's art class.

Do you want this building to be what people remember when they think of the Mill Dam?

The tagging at the Mill Dam has been an ongoing problem for many years. The building is not representing our area well for the tourists that come to the fish ladder throughout the spring, summer and fall.

To solve this problem, the MNRF (Ministry of Natural Resources and Forests) contacted Ms. M and proposed the idea for our class to design a mural that could be put onto the building to enhance the area for tourists and locals, with the hope that the tagging would stop. With the generous support of the Sydenham Sportsmen Association, Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry, BGCDSB and Billy Goodkat a talented local artist, we were able to learn about the area and get the supplies that we needed to make this project successful.

After looking at the history of the Mill Dam and learning about the areas of environment and conservation, we chose important elements that should be included in the design.

Billy Goodkat, the local artist, combined our ideas to produce a final design that would be used for the mural. Some of the important concepts we wanted to include in this mural are the Rainbow Trout, Chinook Salmon, nature and wildlife, the history of the Mill Dam, and the Indigenous people that originally owned the land. We are happy that this final design was able to include and reflect on the importance of the Mill Dam in our Community.

KEY POINTS OF THE MURAL INCLUDE:

- Continuous wrap around design

- Moves from history to present

- Is set on a film reel with elements transforming into 3D and full colour, 4 film slides in total

- Some elements move in and out of each reel negative others remain flat

- Colours used to reflect history and ecology

- Some local species & plant-life are included

We hope you will approve of our design.

However, there is still the risk of this building being re-tagged when we are finished, so we were wondering if the City would be kind enough to pitch in and help pay for the cost of a special paint coating that would be spray-paint resistant so that if any future tagging occurs, it can be washed off and our hard work won't go to waste.

Now, we would like your permission to be able to proceed with this project, as it would give our City, our community and those involved in the creation of the mural, something to be proud of."