Ayer’s Cliff residents fear once quiet village is losing its small town charm
Increases in population, expanding businesses, and tourists seeking relief after months of lockdown have heightened the demand for public parking in many small towns across the Eastern Townships, particularly in the once quiet village of Ayer’s Cliff.
Growth in a small town such as Ayer’s Cliff brings many benefits, namely it strengthens the economy and has the potential to provide a better quality of life for local residents.
“While I do think that we need more parking places in the centre of town, I am quite thrilled to see more people because many small businesses have suffered from the pandemic in the last 16 months,” said retired business owner and local Ayer’s Cliff resident, Janice Voggenreiter.
However, not everyone in Ayer’s Cliff has embraced this inevitable growth as a positive force, and the lack of public parking has upset some local residents while trying to find parking spots in order to run their daily errands.
“Although growth is great for business, we also have to respect what many of our citizens want,” shared Vincent Gérin, who was elected as the mayor of Ayer’s Cliff in 2017. “Therefore, the municipal council has been thinking about a plan to address the parking situation in Ayer’s Cliff for quite a few years now, particularly in the last couple of months.”
“There is a lot of parking space in town, in fact, there is somewhere around 40 to 50 spots in the parking lot behind the library alone, but the real issue is that the parking lots in the centre of town are not well organized,” shared Gérin.
Therefore, the council recently voted to fix the layout of the parking lot on Rue Wulftec by creating new parking signs, laying down new gravel, adding new cedar posts and ropes, and limiting most of the parking times to two hours, said Gérin.
According to Gérin, these improvements, which will make the parking spots more accessible for local residents and tourists, “should be done by the end of July.”
Moreover, the Municipal Council also has long-term plans to create more parking spaces. The town is currently trying to make an agreement with the Stanstead County Agricultural Society to use the Ayer’s Cliff fair grounds for public parking, and it also has plans to create a new parking lot at the bottom of Chemin de Brown’s Hill, said Gérin.
Along with concerns about the lack of parking, local residents have also raised concerns about the increased traffic in the village.
Linda Di Giantomasso and Lucille Renault, who live on Main Street, had to shut down their charming Bed and Breakfast this year after nearly 20 years due to the noise of the countless semi-trucks that speed through the village each day.
Every time a big semi-truck passes by Main Street, their house shakes. “In the past couple of years, especially since the beginning of the pandemic, the shaking has gotten so bad that mirrors have fallen off our walls and it has even become difficult to hear ourselves speak over the noise,” said Renault.
To address this issue, a three-way stop with pedestrian crosswalks on the corner of Tyler and Main Street is in the works, shared Gérin. This traffic control project was supposed to be completed in the spring earlier this year, but the Quebec Ministry of Transportation has been slow to address the issue due to different factors, particularly the COVID-19 pandemic.
However, rather than a threeway stop in the centre of town, Di Giantomasso and Renault think that the town should place a radar speed sign or a yellow flashing light on the outskirts of Ayer’s Cliff to adequately address the problem.
Local residents are hopeful that these improvements will prevent Ayer’s Cliff from losing its small town charm.