Blind River’s Shirvon Park could get a $55,000 upgrade, council decided at its virtual meeting Tuesday evening.
Council initially had decided the park would be decommissioned and turned into green space. That decision led to a 55-signature petition from neighbours of the park who wanted it retained and upgraded to meet current regulations.
The neighbours through spokesman Ben Wiesner lobbied hard for their position with council deciding to defer a decision on the future of the park until it received a report from CAO/Clerk Katie Scott. The report was released to council for yesterday’s meeting.
In her report, Scott reviewed council’s decision to close the park and what it was based on. She pointed to a review of the park by the town’s director of protective services Ken Raymond who found several deficiencies during an inspection.
The inspection was part of a full review of the town’s six playgrounds and found all the facilities needed money spent for upgrades with Shirvon coming in with the highest amount. A lack of ongoing maintenance was blamed for the state of the six sites.
Eventually, it was decided to decommission Shirvon Park and the town spending money on upgrades at the five remaining parks.
Scott estimated the cost to have the park upgraded would be approximately $55,000 which included $28,000 to put up fencing because of its close proximity to water and other work to upgrade park equipment and make it fully accessible. She said council would have to decide whether the $55,000 should be put in the town’s 2022 budget to retain and upgrade the park.
The recommendation sparked a lengthy debate at Tuesday’s meeting with council voting unanimously to send the $55,000 request to the budget committee which would decide if the amount could be included as part of the budget or cut back.
Council voted unanimously to send the request to the budget committee.
Wiesner said this morning that some of the work proposed for the park was not necessary and pointed to the $28,000 for fencing.
“The municipality just has to accept that there will be liability in certain areas of town that are close to water,” he said. “What about the area behind Woodward Ave, between the two bridges, are we going to fence that in as well?”
He added, “the playground has been at that location for over 70 years and there has never been an issue because of the proximity to the water.”
Scott said in her council report that the fencing is required to ensure the grounds are secure and safe for the children. She also said fencing is required to make the park compliant with government regulations.
Wiesner said he is happy the decommissioning has been put off and will go to the budget committee as it puts together a proposed 2022 budget for council’s final decision.