Business union established

The seeds for the association were planted in the summer, as merchants sat on their elbows waiting for work, which closed much of Decarie to traffic. Today, the Decarie merchants' association is officially in business. Last Monday, about 40 of the association's members met at the St. Laurent Recreation Centre to elect a 13-person board of directors.

Called Destination Décarie, the association now boasts more than 30 members, "and we had more than 20 others that said they would sign up as we got going," said president Tom Vriniotis, who owns a fast-food restaurant on the newly-refurbished strip. "The goal is to get 50 members," he added.

On one hand, the association's single voice allows it to speak on behalf of Decarie merchants and on the other hand, it will have the power to influence future projects undertaken on Decarie.

"Without question, we have suffered from a lack of organization in the past," Vriniotis said. "It's possible we weren't ready to organize when the borough decided to reconstruct the road. Today, we're ready to work with the municipality, but we also wanted to prove we are capable of organizing. If everything is structured in this file, the merchants, who know the street they work on very well, will be among the first to make decisions," he said.

The association's second objective is to promote commercial development through the collective's increased promotion and marketing power. To date, the projects will require more thought, but the ideas are beginning to take root.

The first priority, Vriniotis said, is to re-institute an annual St. Laurent street festival. Other celebrations, such as those for Christmas and other holiday periods, are also on the drawing board.

Making contact with the larger companies in St. Laurent might allow the Decarie merchants association to come up with a potential 'entry point' project like an arch or another type of demarcation for the borough's boundaries, much like the one on the Ontario Promenade in east-end Maisonneuve borough.

Finally, an official organizational website is being considered, but those types of projects are on the back burner until the organization grows a bit more, Vriniotis said.