Old Aylmer projects coming in the spring of 2017

In 2017, two important projects for Old Aylmer should come to fruition. One is an identification project for the Heritage Quarter, while the other is a project to erect signs to direct people to rue Principale from different streets and cycling paths. Both are to be up before summer, 2017. Old Aylmer’s “Heritage Quarter” was launched as an embellishment initiative in the summer of 2013 by APICA and former Ward One councillor, Stefan Psenak. For the project, 60 black and blue banners were added to lampposts on rue Principale, signalling the Heritage Quarter. Besides the banners, lamppost stencils identifying specific heritage sites, with the house’s name and the construction year, were painted alongside the old homes and buildings. A commercial development and recruitment strategy for Old Aylmer, proposed by the city, is delayed. The city’s Planning and Sustainable Development Department, piloting this strategy, should complete it by the end of 2017.     The city is also working on a new plan for “gateways” to Old Aylmer; these were in use with the strip malls of the 1970s. The city’s goal is to rebuild these entrances.

Discussions with land and building owners are underway, and the city is hoping to come up with a overall plan, also by the end of 2017.

A Welcome Arch stood at the eastern entrance to Aylmer (opposite today’s Galeries Aylmer), but was demolished in 1962, 22 years after it was erected, according to late historian Diane Aldred, by the Redemptorist order to celebrate the centenary of St. Paul’s Church.