A RIVER-FRONT park’s potential name change – which includes removing the title of a local service club – continues to divide the Waikerie community.
A suggestion to rename the Waikerie Lions Riverfront Park was floated at local council level, following debate over sign installation at the site.
District Council of Loxton Waikerie (DCLW) elected members recently put the proposal to the council’s Community Awards Panel, triggering a passionate and mixed reaction from the community.
A Waikerie Lions founding member is the latest to weigh into the debate, suggesting calls to rename the facility ignore the “untold hours and dollars” invested by club members back in the 1970s.
“We are nothing if our past is not recognised, is swept aside and lost,” Jeff Moss says in a letter to the editor in today’s Murray Pioneer.
“My vote is to retain the present name for the area.”
Mr Moss says in 1975/76 the river-front area was ready for Lions to start developing the site and suggested some people now living in Waikerie may be unaware of “the effort put in by Lions in the development we see today”.
“Features taken for granted today began to appear: barbecue shelters, seating, the large barbecue shelter, conservation of the ‘den’, tree planting, and in later years the Herb Heppner Jetty, followed by the children’s playground.
“The above activities represent untold hours and dollars invested by Lions, supported of course by council. Without this, where would we be?”
Last month Waikerie resident Bevan Thompson said changing the park’s name would be “derogatory to the volunteers who strived to beautify an area to be a family-friendly environment for all, not just a few, which is proposed by some”.