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For Plans, Plants and Pointers, it’s Potter’s
Serving City of Kingston and Loyalist Township
690 Golden Mile Road, Kingston (Corner of Bath & Day’s Rd)
www.pottersnurseries.com
613-389-3333
Thursday, July 11, 2013
www.emconline.ca
Princess Street’s Big Dig complete – Midtown dig is next in 2014
Inside news
By Bill Hutchins Reporter
Buskers Rendezvous Pg. 4
sports
EMC News – The Buskers are coming back this weekend, and the bulldozers have been pushed to the sidelines. Downtown merchants are hoping the popular street acts are just the kick-start they need to boost sales and to show off their newly-rebuilt stretch of lower Princess Street. “It’s like having a child birth,” said Maria Cronk, EMC Events - Canada Day celebrations in Bath were well attended with large crowds lining the co-owner of Roundstone parade route last Monday afternoon. Above: In a long standing tradition, local children and and Fancy That clothing stores. firefighters engage in a water gun fight along the parade route. Photos/John Harman Cronk, like many other business owners, is pleased that Princess Street reopened to vehicle traffic and uninterrupted pedestrian flows just in time for Canada Day following four months of extensive construction activity. “Downtown is still the place to come,” beamed the veteran downtown store owner. The reopening of the main street, giving customers a clear path to storefronts for the first time since February, came just in time for a busy summer of activities that kicked off with the Red and White people parade July 1. That was followed by a Summer Sidewalk sale July 4-7 where merchants displayed their wares in front of stores. Lively and crowd-pleasing street performers with the downtown’s annual Buskers Rendezvous festival will take over Prin-
Annual Canada Day events in Bath
Softball Action Pg. 13
Entertainment
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Continued on page 14
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cess Street for the next four days, from July 11 to 14. The Princess Street Promenade will take place Saturday August 3, where the entire downtown section of Princess Street, between Division Street and Ontario Street, will be closed to all vehicle traffic for an entire day street festival of shopping, entertainment and demonstrations. Cronk admits the second installment of the so-called Big Dig was a little tougher on businesses, but it wasn’t all because of the dust, delays and detours. She says a cool, wet spring also put a damper on the mood of consumers. That mindset, coupled with the confined area of the construction zone, brought less patience for shoppers. Monica Brown, owner of The Rocking Horse, is also delighted to see the barricades come down revealing granite curbs, new sidewalks and planters. Although her business is located just outside the construction zone, she embraced the ‘no pain, no gain’ philosophy of road work. “I’m trying to stay on the positive side.” City officials trumpeted the benefits of ripping up the downtown’s main drag from storefront to storefront to replace a century-old stone box sewer, install new water lines, plus the streetscape improvements – a $7 million project that encom-
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