The Maure family is feeling some relief following naming rights of LaSalle's future waterfront project being approved.
During Tuesday evening's meeting, council has voted unanimously in favour of two projects being named after the Gil Maure family.
The Maure family chose two of the six proposed naming options including the Gil Maure Festival Lawn as well as Gil Maure Way.
The festival lawn is now located at the north end of the waterfront property and the Strawberry Festival will be relocated back to the waterfront once construction in that specific area is complete. It is expected that may be in 2024-2026.
Gil Maure Way is the roadway that will run opposite of Ulster Street. The construction of this road is still a few years away.
Members of administration met with the representatives of the Maure family at the beginning of October to discuss a suitable recognition of Gil Maure in the new project.
The nearly $50-million waterfront project that runs on 60-acres of land will be renovated over Gil Maure Park, which previously caused a stir of emotion in July 2022 over the naming rights to the property.
Shelley Maure, grand-daughter to Gilbert Maure, says people in the town want the name to remain the same.
"There are a large number of individuals in this community that really do care, and specifically are asking administration and council for the Gilmore name to remain as is, to be the constant in our change."
Crystal Meloche, mayor of LaSalle, says she thinks it was a great compromise for everyone.
"So we think we've come up with a very great compromise for the town as well as the Maure family, and every other family because we really think we're representing everyone. And that was what was really important to us was that we didn't want to upset anybody. We wanted to make sure that the Maure family still had their name there, and I really truly think that at the end we were able to do something great for our town and the residents."
Meloche says the Maure name will now stay in LaSalle forever.
"We also voted that it's not for a set term, it's not like a sponsorship where every 10 or 20 years you put a name on a building. This is forever."
She says it was a great feeling to know the Maure family left the meeting happy.
"We didn't want the Maure family leaving upset. We didn't want people to think we were forgetting history and that we didn't care about the past. I mean, that was really important that people understood that. It's a big change," Meloche says. "We have 60-acres of land down there now, we just wanted to make sure that we were doing the right thing for everybody. And, hearing the Maure family applaud and say thank you, honestly, it was a great feeling to know that we were able to do the right thing."
Meloche adds that as of right now council has many options to consider with the rest of the project.
"We have a lot of options that can be put in front of us whether it be other sponsorships, whether we go look for donations to be able to pay for some of those things. We do have a lot of options in front of us. But, we haven't even begun to consider what those are at the time because we're still trying to develop that area too. So, we don't fully know of the stages that we're going to be in."
Shelley Maure expressed her gratitude to council.
"Thank you council, this has been a very difficult time for all of our family, I don't want to get emotional, but thank you."
The naming rights of the other aspects of the project, such as the walkable parkland, a 30,000 square foot event centre at the former Westport Marina site, splash pads, and a sports zone have set to be decided.
A report will come back to council at a later date to discuss names for other aspects of the project.
Gil Maure Park was named after Gilbert Maure, who owned the property and built a house on the land. Maure died in 1970, and the Town purchased approximately 3.6 acres of land from the Maure family in 1980. That, combined with land purchased in 1977 from another family, would become Gil Maure Park through Council Resolution in 1994 at the request of the Maure family.