A decision to close Blind River’s Shirvon Park playground was deferred by council at its virtual meeting Monday evening.
Instead, council will consider a request from neighbors opposed to the closure to explore repairing or replacing outdated playground equipment to keep the facility functioning. In July council received a petition signed by 53 neighbours to keep it open.
Spokesman for the neighbours, Ben Wiesner, also made a presentation at the virtual council meeting stating his group is prepared to seek corporate donations of $20,000 to offset the cost to the town to keep the children’s playground, which has been open for about 60 years, operational.
Weisner said he did not envy councillors who have to continually make difficult decisions on what to fund.
“If I was on your side of the table, one thing I would not do… is to defund, cut, remove or take away anything having to do with kids, especially during this pandemic,” he said in his presentation. “Schools were closed, arenas were closed, libraries were closed parks were closed. Unfortunately, in some instances children’s lives were not the best. The schools and parks and libraries were safe places, and they were closed. The Shirvon playground needs to stay open.”
He also suggested several options for the playground including the removal of non-compliant equipment, making a swing set compliant, adding a structure for two-to-five-year-olds and to replace P gravel with wood fibre chips to make the playground fully wheelchair handicapped accessible.
Weisner also suggested the town create an annual Kids Day celebration at a another park in Blind River outside of the annual Community Days celebrated in the town.
Councillors who had originally considered the playground for closure said they are willing to change that decision.
Town CAO/Clerk Katie Scott was asked to provide council with a report on the cost of keeping the park open that can be considered during 2022 budget deliberations.