The dust has settled, but there are still some hard feelings that have stuck around when it comes to High Street.

That stretch of pavement has been the centre of controversy for the last year and unfortunately business owners, local crews and officials, residents and visitors have all endured the bumpy ride. However, there's a campaign that has recently come to light with the slogan of "Make High Street Great Again." 

Darrell Markin with Cross Canada Flooring was the creator of the campaign and wants everyone to be happy the repairs are over and to shake off any resentments. 

"Did it hurt? Absolutely. Did we get our teeth kicked in? Sure, but there was a lot of customers that came, especially to my business Cross Canada Flooring, that had bought five years ago or six months ago that came back they continued to find a way," explained Markin. "You'd watch them walk two blocks, little bit of drizzle, it was cold out, they didn't care... they were coming to see you."

He said at the end of the day the City, contractors and all other crews got the work completed despite potential mistakes, unforeseen circumstances, and mixed or lost messages out to residents. 

"They tried. The streets are better... I had someone call the other day and said 'Darrell you really are tight with the City now that High Streets all paved, you go up to your place up 9th Avenue and it's paved, freshly paved right to your house. They're trying, we only have so much money, and at the end of the day let's just move forward."

Markin stated that despite never getting a call back from some areas of City Hall, he's grateful for two people, one of whom is the mayor of our city. 

"For me personally and our business, anytime I phoned our Mayor, within an hour or two he always returned your call, no qualms. It becomes very stressful, there's times where you ask who are you going to talk to, I don't see anything going on. The problem was with the City is there was no communication and that might have been one of the biggest issues - there was no communication. So you'd say 'okay I'll phone Fraser and maybe he'll talk to me.'"

According to Markin, Mayor Fraser Tolmie even stopped by his business once the repairs were completed. The second person that he's tipped his hat to is Councillor Dawn Luhning, saying she was another official who always called him back and came down in person to chat. 

There was a party planned for High Street at the beginning of the month, but Markin said the idea quickly fizzled as he and some others in the area just wanted to move forward and felt indifferent about the event.