Handel's Messiah comes to Nesters Wild Willies upgrades, too By Chris Woodall There's a line in Handel's Messiah about "making the rough places plain" that describes to a B-flat the smoothing of Nesters Road this week. Notoriously potholed, road crews started Tuesday to rip up the old road in front of Nesters Mall before laying down a new coating of asphalt. Work should be completed by early next week, say Nesters Market staff. Nesters Market is joining the fray to have its parking spots re-paved, too. The road won't be widened in the process, but additional parking spaces will be squeezed along the side of the road south of the main parking area. The north side of the Nesters Mall building's parking zone will get new blacktop, too, but the area behind the building will be re-graded only. The potholes of Nesters Mall are legendary. As recently as last summer customers at Wild Willies were using the sides of two or three potholes to test extreme rock climbing gear. And every time it rains, visitors with fishing rods could be seen casting for trout or Dolly Vardens in the pothole near the bus stop. But don't think the lack of potholes will mean drivers can zoom through an area that claimed more than one muffler in its time. Proper speed bumps and enhanced street lighting will keep vehicles slow and pedestrians in view. But there's more going on at Nesters Mall than road work. Senka Florist Co. is setting up shop in the mall and Wild Willies Ski Club is rapidly renovating the former NORCU insurance office, taking it over to create a hiking and kayaking centre. The move shifts Wild Willies to the central spot in the mall. "It's a better location. Everyone has to walk by it," says Lucie Vermette of the venerable sporting goods sales and rental shop. The NORCU site gives Wild Willies about 300 square feet more space than it had at the old location. Renovations should be completed by the third week in June, Vermette says. But Wild Willies isn't giving up its old haunts. The former home will be kept, with it concentrating on bicycle sales, rentals and repairs during the summer; flipping to a slopeside demonstration centre for all kinds of skis, boards, blades, cross-country skis and snow shoes during white months, Vermette says. The North Shore Credit Union automated teller machine has been moved in the renovation circus, but not far. It is now nestled a few feet farther south at the base of the steps leading up to Nesters Market.
