If not totally predictable, then let it be semi-historic, Mayor and Council formally approved the construction of the proposed park at the "rez". I spent the evening in council chambers biding my time by live-tweeting on council agenda that contained issues like asphalt tendering, illegal dumping, Sea Dogs winning, soap-box derbies, etc while waiting for our agenda item to come up. It was forgone that the vote would pass; they had unanimously accepted the notion of it during the session before but needed to exercise diligence by getting some hard numbers on maintenance costs.
To clarify what this all means allow me to elaborate. The City of Saint John owns the land on which the future park shall lay. In order to get the necessary permits from the province to work around the waterway that is the Little River, the owner had to give the go-ahead to do so. Soooo, with the whack of a gavel tonight, the City gave its consent to build, build, build. The vote was unanimous. I got several winks, thumbs up and nods from the councilors and Mayor as the vote passed. Whoo hoo!
So, Irving Oil has committed their resources to make a run at this project and the City has committed to maintaining it after the ribbon is cut. LRRA's role will be to ensure its continued viability as a community space through programming events and activities there. That is the plan and we all hope it works out.
I want to thank those at Leisure Services who helped pull this together. They got the information that council needed in order to cast a vote in less than two weeks. Great job folks.
Once construction begins, hopefully this summer, LRRA will start a Facebook page to keep folks up to date on this great project. I will keep you all posted.
Tonight, however, I will sip my celebratory single malt then sleep well. I feel like the world just got a tiny bit better today.
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