A flowerbed in Greenfield Park is back after four years of limbo and controversy.
“It’s a little ridiculous that it would take that long to get back something we’ve had in the past,” said Wade Wilson, a borough councillor in the largely anglophone South Shore enclave.
The flowerbed became a battleground in 2015 between borough and the city of Longueuil following two unrelated events.
A car accident on Bellevue Street in 2015 wiped out the old Greenfield Park sign, written in flowers, that had stood marking a boundary of the borough.
In the summer of the same year, a language dispute broke out when then-Longueuil mayor Caroline St-Hilaire criticized borough officials for using English in council meetings.
Residents and borough councillors pointed to that dust-up as the reason why the city did not rebuild the sign.
“Greenfield park is a very proud community, and identity is something that we’re very strong about and something we’ll fight for,” Wilson said.
At one point in 2015, residents held a “plant-in” at the site but were unsuccessful in getting the sign restored, and continued to voice their frustrations years later.
Global News requested comment from the current Longueuil mayor, Sylvie Parent, but she wouldn’t comment on the situation.
The new sign is notable in that the city of Longueuil’s name predominates.
“We obviously would have liked to see it a little more prominent but it’s a step forward,” Wilson said.
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