Not so silent E - Either lend a hand or get over it!

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Not so silent E - Either lend a hand or get over it!

Details: Published on Thursday, July 9, 2015

By Eoin Devereux

The Neepawa Banner

Much like the local reaction to the Canada Day celebrations in Neepawa, Eoin Devereux finds himself conflicted on his opinion toward the lack of festivities. This week, he writes two separate editorials examining both sides of the argument he’s having with himself about it. You can read to other editorial, 'We failed at Canada Day.' at the attached link.

Every year on July 1, we as a nation take the time to celebrate being more than just America’s hat. (For the record, I prefer to believe that USA is in fact Canada’s pants, but that’s a discussion for another day.) There are displays of patriotism across the country, commemorating the day the Queen said it was okay for us to exist. These events range in size and grandeur, from the massive to humble…Then of course there is what Neepawa did.

In case you hadn’t noticed, and judging by the attendance that night you didn’t, there was a Canada Day celebration at Riverbend Park. It featured fireworks and…, well that’s about it, just fireworks.

A fair amount of negative reaction has since popped up from people who were not all that happy with the lack of events to mark the day. To those people I say…Get over it!

What many people seem to forget about Leisure Services department in Neepawa is that it’s completely funded by the Town. Other communities have recreation commissions, which are volunteer boards funded by a group of municipalities and hire an independent recreation director to organize special events, like Canada Day. In Neepawa’s case, Leisure Services is responsible for things like Canada Day, as well as the Winter Festival, sports dinner, the pool and at least a half dozen other year round endeavours.

On top of that, have you tried to buy fireworks lately? I’m not talking about those bargain priced ones that you can get at the gas station but the actual industrial sized, big kaboom variety. Those are not cheap. Accordingly to the Town of Neepawa and it’s spring resolution on the Canada Day celebrations, the fireworks alone cost $7200. Taking that into account, if municipal officials had simply come out with a statement saying ‘Hey, money, time and other resources are tight, so don’t expect much this year,’ the backlash would have likely been a lot less. I know I’d be okay with that. I’m a grown man, I can buy my own sparklers. Just keep my property taxes low and make sure I don’t fall into an Eoin-sized pothole when I’m driving to work.

What truly intrigues me about the reaction of the people are the comments, which have ranged from ‘boring’ to ‘lame’ to ‘What do you expect? It’s Neepawa.’ It’s that last comment that caught my attention and the degree of apathy behind those words. It actually leads into a bigger problem that must be dealt with.

If the Town can’t provide the nonessential services and that’s what all the secondary events of Canada Day actually are in the grand scheme of things; then where are the local service groups and individuals who are willing to step up and say ‘Leave it to me.’ We assumed somebody else would do all the work and then were upset when nothing got done.

Doing something great is hard. For Neepawa, it’s more than that, it seems damn near impossible, so we don’t try anymore and just hope somebody else will do it. That’s not the way it can be anymore. We’ve got to say ‘I’m a member of this community. Neepawa is my home and that statement has value.’ Until that time, don’t blame the town for a less than thrilling Canada Day. Just say thanks for the running water and be on your merry way.