Four young athletes have left a unique and indelible mark on this humble mountain community. So, to honour Ashleigh McIvor, Lauren Woolstencroft, Jon Montgomery and Maëlle Ricker, their names have been chosen by staff to grace the roads in the new Baxter Creek neighbourhood.
Ashleigh's Legacy, Lauren's Legacy, Montogomery's Legacy, Ricker's Legacy: what a splendid way to honour our homegrown talent. Yes?
Well: "Calling them all legacy seems to my mind the most basic, simplest thing, like no amount of creativity went into it. We're just putting their names down and putting 'Legacy' after it," said Councillor Ralph Forsyth at last week's council meeting.
He wasn't opposed to the names - no one on council was - but he thought the municipality could step up their game and do an even better job honouring Whistler's athletes. He put forward a motion deferring the street naming to staff so they could be work-shopped with council.
"Let's come up with something better than this. This isn't up to our game," Forsyth said. "I think it's better to honour their legacy and step up our game as a town to do a more creative job."
Council batted some ideas around that night - the longest discussion of the evening at the shortest council meeting in years - which included changing Montgomery Legacy to Montgomery Stroll, given his public appreciation of beer demonstrated on Village Stroll during the Games.
Councillor Tom Thomson said he would like to open the workshops to the residents of Baxter Creek to hear their input.
"I don't think it's up to us," he said. "I'd like to have something with a little more pizzaz. I looked at it and thought there are a lot of legacies. Where am I going? There are four opportunities that I could get lost very easily."
"Well, you could," Melamed quipped, to a swell of laughter.
Melamed also questioned the choice of some of the names. Two of the proposed names were last names and two were first names, and staff's choice of which might not be as recognizable. "Ricker's Legacy" could be changed to "Maëlle's Legacy" given the uniqueness of her first name; and the proposed "Lauren's Legacy" might be more recognizable as "Woolstencroft Legacy."
Staff pointed out that there are space restrictions on the road signs.
All the athletes have been notified about the street naming and have given their support to the project.
