Pierrefonds white horse to ride again

Four years after it dismantled a $60,000 horticultural display with a horse centrepiece in front of borough hall after stating it was too expensive to maintain, Pierrefonds/Roxboro is planning on filling the sculpture's skeletal frame with fibreglass and raising it on a white cement base at a round-about on Sources and Riverdale Boulevards. "(The display) was too costly to operate," explained Pierrefonds councillor Bert Ward, adding the plant arrangements inside the horse's skeletal frame were particularly difficult to take care of. "The flowers were planted through the sculpture itself, and it's marvellous, but it's too much to maintain," Ward said.

In 2003, the display was unveiled to much fanfare as the borough's entry into a Montreal-run botanical artistry contest called Mosaiculture.

The horse is a visual representation of the 18th-century Rapides du Cheval Blanc (white horse rapids) legend, which has it that a white horse used to emerge from the Rivière des Prairies, terrorizing villagers and ravaging crops.

In 2003, the borough estimated maintenance costs would be approximately $50,000 a year, and building the sculpture itself had cost $10,000.

Though borough spokesperson Joanne Palladini said the annual price tag estimate was about right, the cost still proved too much of a strain. "That amount was enough to justify maybe not coming back every year," she explained. The borough took down the sculpture in 2005. The horse's frame has since been put away in Pierrefonds' public works building, said Palladini.

Two former Pierrefonds councillors who had vocally objected to the amount of money spent on the display in 2003 said they were not too surprised by the borough's about-face. "I guess the city realized the error of their ways," said Michael Labelle, a councillor with the former city of Pierrefonds up to 2001, who ran against current mayor Monique Worth as borough chairman with opposition Vision Montreal party that year and lost. "What I said at the time was simple," Labelle added. "It's that if I had a choice between a $60,000 horse full of flowers and $60,000 worth of playground for young kids, I'd go for the playground." Labelle's former colleague, George Boutilier, also a councillor up to the Pierrefonds merger in 2001, said the statue's new location, closer to the Rapides du Cheval Blanc park, seemed to make more sense. "I never figured out why they put it in city hall anyway," he said. "The city employees had to repeatedly go in the summer and cut it back and keep it in proper shape," Boutilier recalled, adding it was a "very costly thing."

However, Palladini said council in 2003 felt the expense was well-justified to participate in the first edition of Montreal's prestigious international Mosaicultures contest. "It would have been bad to see the 18 other boroughs participate and not us," she said, though she conceded the attempt was Pierrefonds' first and last.

Both Ward and Palladini added there are no additional costs to the reinstallation of the horse. ""There was no cost (to the reinstallation)," Ward said, "because the work is being done by our employees."

Palladini clarified the borough's public works director Hugo Lachance had not factored in a bill for the work since everything was handled internally. "He did not put a price on the setting up," she said.

Whereas Labelle pointed out the new location of the statue would make it a prime target for graffiti artists, Palladini was not too worried. "I'm sure somebody will have the idea of going and painting it eventually," she said, but the borough already has a graffiti clean-up crew, which is dispatched as soon as it learns of graffiti on any public property. "Within the next few weeks it should be there," said Palladini, not giving out a specific deadline. She added borough workers want to ensure it is solidly built, as passersby may be likely to "climb on it, play or it or go just to take a picture."

For now, the circular, cement base is already installed at the round-about, dug into a hole in the grass and surrounded by temporary barricades. Once the horse is installed on it, it is slated to be framed by flower beds.