DORVAL — Work crews are already out on the greens.
But these guys aren’t friends of the Dorval Municipal Golf Club.
Just the opposite.
They’re doing prep work for the eventual take over of the course by the Montreal-Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport.
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“You just don’t throw somebody out on the street and say, “It’s our land, we’re taking it over, goodbye,” Bruce Orr, the club’s VP told Global News.
“They’re now looking to come in the month of October.”
Orr is ready for the fight of his life. He’s trying to stop airport authorities from moving in ahead of schedule.
The club leases the historic nine hole course from the airport for $96,000 a year.
The contract ends on December 31, but the airport wants to break the lease a few months early and start building a new security facility to screen non-passenger personnel entering restricted areas.
“We’re going to take this as far as we can go in order to stop it,” Orr said.
Orr has started a petition with more than 800 signatures and he’s hoping to get 10,000.
READ MORE: Petition drive to save Dorval Municipal Golf Course
He said he then plans to travel to Ottawa to ask the Federal Transport Minister to intervene and force the airport to ground its security project or at least reach a compromise with the golf club.
Glen Barrette will lose his job of 25 years at the club by the end of the season. Currently he’s the manager — but now he’s not sure about his future plans.
He said he’s also committed to preserving the lush grounds in any capacity possible.
“Ideally it would be to designate this as a green space and an official buffer zone between the airport and the homes,” he told Global News.
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Krystal Cheung moved to the neighbourhood a couple of years ago but now she worries the airport’s plans could sink her life style.
“The traffic and the noise … and especially if it’s all hours of the night or in the evening,” she said.
“It affects our quality of life.”
Cheung and many others are expecting to learn more about the airport’s plans at a public meeting next week.
They said they just hope there’s still time to save this nearly 100-year-old club from being erased out of existence.
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