Keegan Kozolanka covers Wellington County for EloraFergusToday.
The frustration and anger from Erin residents is not about a logo change, at least not entirely.
The Town of Erin’s latest debacle is, as the old saying goes, the straw that broke the camel’s back in a community on the brink of a tremendous amount of change barrelling toward residents faster than they’re comfortable with.
It was Friday when Erin revealed its new rebranding which was more or less a new logo to be used by the municipality, replacing the traditional shamrock with a new logo of three leaves creating a heart in the middle, mainly with green colours.
This was quickly met with social media backlash of people decrying the loss of the shamrock but also of the town’s heritage, character and charm.
To put it simply, they don’t like the change. Sound familiar?
Go to any public meeting and you’ll hear similar arguments against new residential developments which there is no shortage of in Erin to put it lightly.
For example there’s the Solmar development which will essentially double the size of the Village of Erin with around 1,400 homes, parks and greenspace, and swaths of industrial or commercial space.
How about the Coscorp and Mattamy Homes development on Eighth Line? Another 600 houses. Not too far away is another nearly 300 or so homes going up off Eighth Line by Empire Communities.
Not content to let Erin the village have it all, Hillsburgh is also getting a subdivision by Briarwood here and a subdivision by Blackthorn there, adding up to another 1,000 or so homes.
When all is said and done based on the County of Wellington’s growth projections and allocations handed down from the province, the Town of Erin is expected to reach a population 26,300 by 2051 with the Village of Erin having a population of 10,800 and Hillsburgh with 6,100, the rest living in rural hamlets which are also growing.
Comparatively, the Town of Erin’s population was estimated at 12,000 in 2021, 3,100 in the village and 1,400 in Hillsburgh.
It’s understandable both newer and long-time residents of Erin would be nervous to see what the future will bring when their town grows like this although to be fair, it’s not alone in this population growth even in Wellington County.
What it has that others don’t is an under construction wastewater plant that has caused a lot of headaches in Erin and Hillsburgh with construction, ripped up roads and environmental worries from some groups.
Erin recently seems to have had a lot of road closures and construction going on, go to any of the community groups on Facebook and you’ll see complaints about it.
To top all this off? The town presents residents with a new bland, corporate logo that didn’t appear to be very well researched based on the number of similar logos people have found or have much in the way of consultation based on the town going from asking for input to revealing it in nine days.
It’s another change residents didn’t ask for but another one they’re probably going to have to accept.
Yes, people are definitely upset about losing their shamrock, but if you think it’s just about a logo you’re lying to yourself.
