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BRIDGETOWN — Shawn Saunders has plenty of faith in the futureof this small Valley town. He owns a local restaurant, a senior citizens home and recentlyopened the Trojan Sports Centre at the western end of Bridgetown,in the old Acadian Distillers plant. And he has aspirations for more development in the town. Saunders, who grew up here, plans to open a hockey academy andexpand his current sports facility. It already contains theprovince"s largest synthetic ice surface, an in-door soccertraining facility, lawn bowling lanes and a road hockey area. Hewill add a fitness gymnasium in July. The not-for-profit sports training centre was developed in the pastyear, while town hall was wading in deep financial waters. "It"s always been our dream to have a hockey academy inBridgetown," said Saunders, who was the successful bidder onthe 70,000-square-foot building through Nova Scotia Business Inc.He also leases spaces out to a handful of other small businesses. The academy will eventually enrol athletes from across the countryto live in town and attend local schools, said Saunders, a hockeyfan and former president of the Western Valley Hockey League. The town"s troubles over the past year have not deterred hisplans. He thinks the crisis has allowed Bridgetown to start fromscratch. "I think a fresh start is not a bad thing," said the50-year-old. "Sometimes you have to hit rock bottom beforestarting over." Even a nine per cent raise in residential taxes and 4.4 per centhike in commercial rates doesn"t dampen his spirit. "Ifit means keeping the town going, that"s what we have todo." Joanne Frost is the owner of the End of the Line Pub at thesouthern end of town. She bristles at the negative publicity thetown has received since its financial plight made nationalheadlines. "We"ve come to terms with it. ... The shock is over," she said about the troubles andcouncil"s sudden resignation. "We have a lot of goodthings here and a community spirit that most communitiescouldn"t round up with that kind of difficulty goingon." She said Bridgetown"s financial situation is not muchdifferent from other small towns in Nova Scotia, including therising tax rates. "It"s happening all around theprovince. "And it has to happen. We have a lot of services providedthat we really haven"t paid for over the years." At the same time, she is cautious. "I don"t ever wantto see our government in the same position that it was over thepast year." Rachel Edwards and Jennifer D"Aubin, both 36, have beenworking hard over the past few months to develop the town"snew Bridgetown Farmers and Traders Market. It features more than 30vendors in Jubilee Park every Tuesday. Both natives of the town, they want to see the community flourish. "People are ready for something like this," saidD"Aubin. "We needed something good here." "Maybe it will generate some more fresh blood and encouragepeople our age to get involved," added Edwards. "Ithink we"re seeing a shift, with more people in our age groupdoing that." Andy Kerr, a local businessman and president of the Bridgetown andArea Chamber of Commerce, said the business community rallied inthe face of the town"s problems. "Rather than throw their hands up and run for cover, they allhunkered down and were all very much behind the appointed council.We operated business as usual. Those who were able, helped outfinancially." He never once got the sense that the town had no future."It"s been a challenging year, but we seem to havegotten through it OK. There have been no failing businesses." He added, "Our population is pretty stable and we"reseeing a lot of young families move here. ... And if we are a seniors community, then let"s be a fantasticseniors community." He said no one likes a tax increase. "But rather thanranting, protesting, angry citizens, we"ve actually seenquite the opposite." Appointed mayor Bob Fowler said he"s never seen suchcommunity spirit. "The community has had an infectious effect on all of us,too," Fowler said, referring to his two-member council ofAnna Allen and Jim Thurber, along with interim CAO Darrell Hiltz. Steve Raftery, community economic development co-ordinator, saidpre-registration for Grade Primary is up at Bridgetown RegionalElementary School for next year, after declining for the pastseveral years. "So there are a number of young families that have moved hererecently. We"re starting to see that this year and expect itto continue over the next few years," Raftery said. "That certainly wasn"t projected, but it"s a veryencouraging sign." He said he seeks newcomers out when they arrive and asks why theycame. "Invariably, one of the answers is that they werelooking for a nice community to raise their young family,"Raftery said. A lot of them are coming with their own businesses, like MichaelRobertson, who moved here from Toronto and sells old vinyl recordsonline. Others have started small farms or new businesses. "They come here knowing they can ply their trade from justabout anywhere." He wants people to know that Bridgetown is not just an agingretirement community, although it has a high population of seniors,too. Raftery himself moved to Bridgetown in 1995 with his wife, whoteaches at the College of Geographic Sciences at the Lawrencetowncampus of the Nova Scotia Community College. They planned onstaying for just two years. "We decided to stay here and we bought a big older house witha nice piece of property back in 1998. I tell people we moved herefor two years, 17 years ago now," he added. "We enjoy the lifestyle. ... It"s a beautiful place tolive." ( gdelaney@herald.ca ). 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