EDITORIAL: For years now, the waterfront in Saarburg has remained empty for all to enjoy. Not a single obstruction lies on it, except for the tennis club. Cyclists have happily gone by on their bikes on their way between Trier and Merzig without the need to stop; tourists have not felt the urge to desecrate the river front with their picnics; children have played at home or gone to their friends in other villages; there has never been an event on that land of any kind. And that is how we like it. Empty and unspoilt.
But if a group of nefarious entrepreneurs get their wicked way, that could be about to change. On this pristine carpet of grass and mole hills, the developers want to put an urban-style park with trees, children's play area, mini-golf, an avenue of trees, with bushes, shrubs, flowers, paths, a pond, and an outdoor concert stage.
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| Devoid of life: just as we like it |
Fellow Saarburgers, if we allow this, our peace will be forever shattered. The days when children stay indoors and peace reigns will be lost. The facts that Saarburg, officially a town, does not have more than 100m² of public recreational facilities, and spent €1 million on an car park that is full only 4 times a year along with a set of roads by-passing the town, made its football club move to a fittingly much smaller facility far away and out of sight of any residents makes us the most peace-loving and senior-citizen-friendly town in Rheinland-Pfalz.
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| Panorama: The view of the church from the eastern side of the bridge would be lost forever. |
We are attracting more old people to our town by allowing a senior home to be built right on the river, and with our retro-themed clothes shops, our cafés that close at 6 and restaurants that serve nothing more exotic than pizza or kebab, we are keeping Saarburg for the elderly, for they are the future. If we wanted to attract the young, we would copy Remich, Rosport or Grevenmacher, but we aren't. We are Saarburg and we want to remain unique in catering for the old.
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| Threatened: the gravel-strewn road where fishers park |
We therefore plead to Saarburg town council to set aside a part of that untouched plot of earth to become a cemetery. This would be a fitting tribute to the people who have kept Saarburg unchanged for hundreds of years. We plead with our readership to lobby our town council to allow our patrons to know, that when they die, they will be interred right next to the place they refused to build on. And all the passers-by on their fancy bikes will know that those heroes, defending the town from the evils of modernity, are the reasons why they can still enjoy an empty and undeveloped riverside.
