Sir: I was going through your newspaper I read that our Worthy Mayor, Randy Hope has a vision for the former Navistar property out on Richmond Street and Kiel Drive in Chatham (“Big ideas for Navistar property,” May 31 Chatham Voice). My response is as follows:
First of all Navistar still owns the property from what I have heard. I can’t imagine that company would give it away to our municipality without getting a lucrative deal from the local government.
Second, according to what I have heard, there are certain areas of that property that have to be cleaned up for various chemicals and oils that are in the ground from various activities that went on there when it was factory land.
These areas may take years to clean up and re-establish for some other use.
Of course, most important though, is would the federal or provincial governments provide enough money or support to make a recreational facility at this sight a reality, without local government, businesses and the public that lives here chipping in to pay for the expenses incurred?
I might note that there are a lot of people who have had the same or similar vision of what can be done with this property. That is if and when Navistar decides what it wants to do with the property, if in fact they sell it back to the Municipality of Chatham-Kent.
Hope is not the only one in our community who has a vision for what to do with this old factory land.
It really is a nice vision or dream to do something soon with the former Navistar property. Like all good dreams we have about improving our city and municipality, they usually come with a hefty price tag and may take longer to complete than may have been originally planned.
It’s nice to dream, but reality sometimes does not always work out as we had hoped it would.
Frank Doyle
Chatham
