Dear Editor:
An open letter to Centre Wellington councillors and members of the road planning committee.
I am a Grade 6 student from John Black Public School and I found out that you’re considering putting a bridge over the Grand River at Pierpoint Park. This is very upsetting.
First, this is one of our town’s only Black heritage sites because on this land is where Richard Pierpoint lived and was supposedly buried underneath one of the great old trees in the 1800s. When Richard died, the land he owned didn’t die with him, but destroying this land will kill the rest of Richard Pierpoint in this town. Richard Pierpoint was a great man who was a slave and had escaped, and honestly if you build a bridge where he used to live it will be very dishonourable to the people of this land.
Second, our class goes down to the river every Tuesday. We greet the river and all the animals like fish and birds who depend on it to live and thrive. Then we go to play games in the forest. If you are to build that bridge, our class and other classes are no longer safe to go down there. I and the rest of my class would be very disappointed because we really love to go to the river and then play games in the forest next to it. If you built this bridge, then we won’t be safe to go down there because the big trucks and cars would always be coming through.
Third, it’s not just people who go down to the river in the forest, it’s the animals too. The animals depend on this graceful river that runs through our land. Many animals such as deer, beavers, otters, fish and other animals that depend on the river will be chased out of their land by your giant construction vehicles. They might die on the roads and streets from being hit by cars, starved and hunted. The Indigenous people of this land honoured the Grand River and the animals that made their home near it. The trees that squirrels and chipmunks make their home in would be destroyed too. So please find another option.
Connor Mulligan,
Centre Wellington