It was with great pleasure that I read John Tamming's letter in your publication. Finally someone gets it.

Owen Sound is my birth place and where I am proud to call home but we as a civic society really do not have a clue as to what we have been charged with, to care for, for future generations. I know that progress is a task master but it is one that is our responsibility to control and direct.

We need the vision to believe in our town as someplace special, someplace unique, someplace that embraces heritage as well as electric cars. We have such a store of beauty here that really only needs a gentle touch to reemerge and shine.

It will only be by insightfull planning that empty storefronts will beam with life again, a biword of quality will be our hallmark and nature will line our streets and sidewalks. Our downtown should be our place to grow, where there should be incentives to improve and disincentives for empty spaces - where the esthetic of our buildings should be respected with windows that reflect the original beauty and store fronts that call out welcome

We are so lucky to have our harbour...irreplaceable, our art gallery and library, Harrison park , Kelso beach. How to maximize these treasures for future generations.

Let us take some guidance from towns that have not forgotten who they are or what they were. Niagara on the lake, Stratford, Lindsay are but a few examples.

Also ran is not good enough for us...We need to lead..our children demand it.

Harry Marshall