(BlackburnNews.com file photo by Adelle Loiselle)(BlackburnNews.com file photo by Adelle Loiselle)
Chatham

Thamesville Residents Count Down To Timmies Opening

Just in time for winter, Thamesville residents will soon be able to warm up with hot coffee and baked goods at a brand new Tim Hortons location opening in town this week.

The Thamesville Tims is officially set to open its doors on Wednesday, November 15.

Councillor David VanDamme thinks Tim Hortons will be a perfect fit for the Thamesville community, with various hockey tournaments hosted in the area. He says the coffee shop will attract more people to stay in town after activities.

"Anytime you get these kinds of development in a small rural community, it's always a good thing and creates a buzz of activity. For the most part, I think residents are pretty pumped about the idea, as am I. It'll be a nice venue for myself and other councillors to sit down and have coffee with the residents," says VanDamme.

On the other hand, VanDamme says there is concern that the franchise may affect business for other small coffee shops in town.

"If economic development works to its highest point, the way it should be, it will attract other investments into Thamesville, which would be wonderful. The worst thing that could happen would be that everybody would sort of flock to Tim Hortons because that's the new place," he says.

However, VanDamme reassures residents that Thamesville's growing opportunities will likely attract more business into the town, rather than take away from local shops.

According to VanDamme, the company in charge of the project, Ros-Bay Developments, has "done an excellent job" working with residents, the municipality, and councillors. He says community engagement is a key focus of the project for the developers.

"The neat thing about this development is that one of the owners of Ros-Bay has roots in Thamesville. It's nice that stories like this come full-circle. It's my hope that everyone will be able to look back at this time as an exciting period for Thamesville," says VanDamme.

VanDamme says he hopes the project will encourage more people to move back and stay in Thamesville.

"My goal is that it will leverage more and more opportunities for Thamesville. That would be fantastic if those types of things could happen. That's sort of the platform that I always operate on, as well... to just bring more to these small rural communities to sort of revive them and get going again," explains VanDamme.

He adds that the next franchise he would like to see come to Thamesville would be a grocery store.

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