Wheatley's youngest task force member hopeful he can help village recover
9 buildings in the downtown will be demolished next month
Quinn Bowman is a lifelong Chatham-Kent resident in Wheatley.
He's also part of the southwestern Ontario village's new task force meant to extend business recovery — and facilitate resident assistance programs.
The group of local citizens is trying to find a path forward after a hydrogen sulphide gas explosion three years ago.
The 26-year-old has taken a leading role to help re-imagine the community.
Bowman says when the task force began, there wasn't a playbook to follow.
"There were a lot of uncertainties and questions and investigations that had to be done," he said.
"We were kind of a liaison, in a sense to start getting answers for people from Chatham-Kent, as well as answering people's questions."
The explosion rocked Wheatley's downtown area on Aug. 26, 2021 and injured 20 people.
WATCH | Aug. 2021 explosion rocks downtown Wheatley, Ont.:
Last summer, the province announced $11 million more in provincial funding in the aftermath of the blast. Of that, roughly $225,000 was directed to the town's recovery task force. Earlier this year, the municipality hired Kyra Knapp as a full-time economic development officer to spearhead redevelopment efforts and the task force.
Demolition is set to begin next week on nine downtown buildings, but there is uncertainty about how redevelopment will move forward.
Bowman talked with CBC Radio's Windsor Morning host Amy Dodge. Here's part of their conversation.
What has kept you in Wheatley through all of this?
That's a great question. I mean obviously born and raised, went to school here, played sports here. I'm proud to be from Wheatley. I appreciate the history and family here. I've never been able to leave, so I appreciate the town.
What kind of future do you see for Wheatley now?
I think it's a great opportunity. Any time you have the chance to pause and take a step back and see where we want to go from here. I think that can be frustrating for a lot of people, the process, but I think we need to look at the positive side of it.
Volunteering is kind of in the water in Wheatley.- Quinn Bowman
What is it that you love about Wheatley so much?
I think the community feel. I'd say everybody's supporting everybody.
I think all the volunteering. I would always say volunteering is in the water in Wheatley.
Just the history we have. Sports, hockey, soccer, baseball and golf.
The horticultural society just built a new outdoor arboretum. We have some trails and outdoor gym equipment.
There's still lots of volunteering, lots of organizations.
What about other people who grew up with you in Wheatley? Have they ventured on to other towns and cities, or are you finding that they're also coming back to Wheatley and helping to rebuild it?
Most of my friends are still here. Some went away to school, but most of them came back — found their way back.
I think that just is a testament to what the core values of Wheatley are, and and what people really think of Wheatley.
What are you hearing from them? What do they want to see for Wheatley?
I think it comes back to housing. I think that's a common theme everywhere. Some housing options, accessibility so that people don't have to go to a larger town because of the supply issue.
That's one of the main things that we're trying to tackle as we expand the task force as well.
What are the next steps of rebuilding once the demolition is done?
I think we'll have a lot of answers soon. With the demolition happening, they're going to be doing some investigation if there's a well under there.
I don't want to speculate, depending on what the results of those investigations are.
There will either be, "Hey, you know, we can build here," or "Hey, we can't build here."
And then we'll have an answer. At least we can move forward. Having Chatham-Kent's support … is key.
What if it's determined that you can't rebuild in that same area where the blast happened?
That's an interesting one. If that were the case, I think that would just hammer home the values, and one of the main values that came out of our consultation, which was safety.
People want to feel safe up there, whether it's the people within the town or attracting new people to town.
I think just the safety factor and making it blend in with the community will be really important, just so that we can kind of move forward.
On Wednesday, we learned that one of the buildings had been flooded out and residents were asked to move. You have the explosion, and there was a lengthy boil water order. We do stories about the shoreline erosion. How do you process all of this as a younger person who's trying to rebuild the community?
That's a bit of a loaded question. It's tough. You can be negative and feel bad for yourself about all these things, or you can try to see the positives in it … but I always say that that's what the community is about — how we bounce back. We've dealt with a lot of adversity, and you know what a story it will be.
WATCH | Effects of explosion in downtown Wheatley:
I remember when we went into the community after the explosion. There were signs of Wheatley Strong. It seems those signs aren't coming down anytime soon?
No. I think they'll be up for the next 40 years.
Do you find people are getting tired, or do you think the fight is getting stronger?
It was a traumatic event.
It's always in the back of people's minds. I think with some of the steps that we've made, especially with securing this funding, I think that's given people a lot more hope.
It's just about stringing a couple of these positive events [together], getting some answers, and then containing and maintaining the momentum.
Q&A is edited for length and clarity