Watch: Residents are worried about what will happen to their neighbourhood when the golf course is replaced by the Train de l’Ouest
DORVAL — The nine-hole Dorval Municipal Golf Club is set close permanently after 2015 to make way for airport expansion, which includes room for the Train de l’Ouest, Global News has learned.
The news means that 12 club employees — two of whom work year-round — will lose their jobs at the end of the year.
“It’s a very pleasant job, I enjoy it every day,” said Adrien Lemay, a seasonal club employee who has worked there for 15 years. He was emotional when Global News talked to him; though he’s seasonal, the course job was his main source of income.
“I would like to go on, there’s no question about it,” he said. “I’m not a young man, but I can still manoeuvre, I’m in good health.
“There’s no reason for me not to continue.”
The news that the airport’s managing company is not renewing the lease on the land also troubles residents who live near the course, especially on Thorncrest Avenue, the street that runs along the course’s western side.
“Obviously the noise level’s bad enough,” said Patricia Dewyn, who lives on Thorncrest.
City of Dorval officials did not return calls seeking comment.
According to Christiane Beaulieu, a spokesperson for the Aéroports de Montréal, the company that manages the airport, the course land is necessary to accommodate the rails of the Train de l’Ouest and to put in a distribution hub.
READ MORE: Train de l’Ouest slated to roll out by 2020
The Train de l’Ouest project recently got a shot in the arm after the province announced the Caisse de Depot would take over financing and ownership of the commuter project with an eye toward making it commercially viable.
The airport currently handles 14 million passengers a year.
The Dorval Municipal Golf Club opened in 1960. It absorbed part of the Elmridge Golf Course and still features four of the original 9 greens.
But now it looks like airport expansion is about to devour the course.
“The worst is that it’s the green space that we’re losing,” said Glenn Barrette, the club’s manager.
After 25 years, his year-round job will end when this season finishes.
“I mean I live over here — there’s going to be more noise, more pollution.”
Comments