Park Upgrade Pegged at Nearly Half A Million

Thursday, March 08, 2007 05:20 AM

Community Foundation Park as it sits today

It is called the Community Foundation Park, located in front of the Four Seasons Pool at 7th and Dominion. It was initially inaugurated in 1967 with the Centennial Fountain, but since then it has become a gathering place for drug users, the focus of pranksters, and according to the recent report given to Prince George City Council, " the water feature that is misused for public bathing (or other uses)."

City staff say the park has poor site lines and hiding spots that allow for all manner of undesireable behavior. A new design for the park would see major upgrades:

removal of the east curved wall and the fountain bowl
redesigned fountain area where water will spill over large rocks,
the mural wall would remain
a feature sitting area around the Terry Fox statue
hard surface pathways,
significant shrub and tree plantings

Preliminary estimates for the work (shown at right) were pegged at $147 thousand dollars.

The Consultant on the project, Jay Lazzarin, Landscape Architect, has submitted a cost estimate of $497 thousand dollars.

City staff are recommending the improvements be spread over several years with the first phase using existing approved funds to remove the east sculpted wall and the fountain bowl, and the installation of concrete pavers connecting the remaining wall area to the adjacent sidewalk.

Phase two would see a new water feature added and the new plants added all subject of course to Council approving the extra expense.

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Posted on Thursday, March 08, 2007 05:20 AM in News by 250 News

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Comments

Posted by: postman on March 8 2007 9:31 AM

Finally the redo of the great urinal on dominion!

Posted by: trusted on March 8 2007 10:15 AM

Oh no!
How inconvenient for the drug pushers and users.
They must have felt very secure to hang around and carry on their operations so close to the police station.
Should move to the front lawn of city hall-and just hook up a hose for the occasional washing of hands and I think city hall would supply plastic scoop bags, and the rain can wash away whatever.
Hell, what's another 1/2 million bucks.
Has that mill rate been set yet? They better wait until the last minute so they can give it a justifiable hike to cover these additional expenses.
When it is set-maybe time for the Mayor to escape the city again, and surely it will be holiday time anyhow. His "spring break", or whatever.

Posted by: Andyfreeze on March 8 2007 11:52 AM

Cityhall never ceases to amaze me!I just can't figure out where they get all the money from? Oh ya,I know...the taxpayers have plenty!!Let's dream up another way of getting some shall we??
If this town went broke in a few years,I would not be the least bit suprised.This is out of control!How many of these loony- toone projects are funded with grants I wonder? Is there anyway people can get this info?I'm curious.

Posted by: More BS on March 8 2007 12:45 PM

I bet we could mow it down, haul it away and plant grass for less than $10,000. A half a million could fix a lot of potholes!

This is another mission by the fools that think that there really is such a thing as downtown revitalization.
Fer crissakes you morons, maybe we should spend the money on solving the problem (the druggies etc) instead of trying mask the symptoms with an "upgrade". If we don't solve the problem we'll just be in another neighbourhood doing another "upgrade" again and again and again...............

Posted by: trusted on March 8 2007 1:38 PM

Andyfreeze-missed your comment re smelly hot water.
Try lowering the temperature on your hot water tank. If it is sulphur it is highly possible it will cut that rotten egg smell.
Worth a try!

Posted by: owl on March 8 2007 2:18 PM

First it says ....

"City staff say the park has poor site lines and hiding spots that allow for all manner of undesireable behavior"

Then it says that they will knock down one of the walls, leave another and add "significant shrub and tree plantings"

People hide behind walls; people hide behind shrubs; and people hide behind signd and large rocks ....

So, I really do not see the improvement.

I think half a million dollars for adding no new "green" space downtown is far too much money.

Increase the pedestrian traffic in that area and people might use it. The same goes with the plaza at the library .... do something to increase the pedestrian traffic. Pull some commercial use in.

The "park" is on the north side of a building. That is not a "winter city" design. Any fool who thinks about how to locate a park would have located it to the south of the building in the first place.

All this does is throw good money after bad. It will not fix the problem.

Tearing down one wall will help in the short term. Any additional money is down the drain and better spent in improving the area in other ways to add commercial activities.

Posted by: Harbinger on March 8 2007 2:33 PM

Half a million bucks can sure buy a lot of one-way bus tickets out of our town. Even with a few bucks on the side fer pop and chips on the bus ride. Why give them fewer places to fart around. Anywhere else but here.

Posted by: Andyfreeze on March 8 2007 3:19 PM

Hey... thanks trusted on the water issue!!Much appreciated!But I have tried that and it doesn't make much difference unfortunately.They tell me the problem is sulfer AND iron.A new high tech softener didn't help much either.Just seems pretty sad in this day and age when you have crap like that coming out of your tap!I would think the place to deal with it is at the source but I guess not!I am also going to have the water tested when the run off is done.Just curious.

Posted by: Longnecks1 on March 8 2007 4:05 PM

Maybe Doug Walls would like to make a contribution out of his free Million.....

Posted by: Chadermando on March 8 2007 4:11 PM

Me and some friends back in highschool once bought a couple of tubs of detergent and dumped them into the fountain. It was a great prank watching the whole area fill up with bubbles and the drunk natives getting clean playing in it. LOL One of the better ones we ever did. Actually did it twice it was such fun at the time.

Posted by: camoose on March 8 2007 4:34 PM

Actually we could afford this project if we just put a 2% surcharge on everybodies tax bill. Of course we would show it on a separate line of the bill. This would no doubt make all well in La La Land.

Posted by: diplomat on March 8 2007 6:02 PM

A half a million here, a half a million there...pretty soon we are talking about serious money, Mr. Mayor.

Can I have the power pole removed from the middle of the 3 foot wide sidewalk, please?

Posted by: Palopu on March 8 2007 9:13 PM

I remember the detergent in the fountain episode a number of years ago. While it was no doubt hillareous to the perpetrators it was not very well received by the City of by the Citizens. In fact if I recall correctly they seriously considered tearing down the whole site. In the end they just shut the water off for a few years, until the pranksters found something else to do.

In hindsight they should have torn it down, because in reality it serves no useful purpose, certainly no purpose that warrants a $500,000.00 facelift.

People sleep on the grass by this fountain and also on the grass in front of City Hall, they have been doing it for years, and being a free country theres not much anyone can do. They also hang around the **New Courthouse** all day long, not just in this City but many Citys. These types of facilities seem to attract certain people.

There may be solutions to some of the problems for people who are in distressed conditions, however I suspect that no one in this town will find the solutions, because no one is looking for them.

This town is about **make a buck and cut and run** . Help your fellow man only as a last resort. Find fault and criticize whenever possible. Do unto others what you feel they deserve.

Buy a Snow Mobile, Pick-up truck, with an illegal trailer, bomb around town with your hat on backwards, with a dog in the back, run red lights, and speed, pick-up a 24 pack, break wind, and head for the hills for a week-end of terrorizing the Cariboo and other animals, drink beer, stuff your face with hot dogs, and hamburgers, and have a hell of a good time. **Whoopee*

Posted by: YamaDooPolCat on March 8 2007 10:31 PM

I remember when that fountain was built. Everyone (except for city council) thought it was a waste of money. At least that fact hasn't changed.
I remember the soapy fountain trick, took a special trip by there just for the laugh, good one! Wished I could have done that one.

Posted by: Runner46 on March 8 2007 11:29 PM

Great suggestions.

Why not just put up a fence and lock everyone in..........or out.

I have lived here for twenty five years and didn`t realize how nice downtown can be until I started working there a year ago.

This is my damned community and I walk in that area every day now.

Yes, it is a bit grungy, but we can`t keep ignoring the dark side of our community.

I for one think this is a damned good idea.

By the way, all of you should come down to Centennial Park the 3rd Sunday in September about 9:00 a.m. There will be hundreds of people there.

Then you will see why we need to go forwards, not sideways or backwards.

Posted by: owl on March 9 2007 2:03 AM

The thing I am worried about is that the city is looking for this to be the place which they consider to be the city square where people gather for special occasions.

This is not the place, if that is what they have in mind. Maybe I was not paying attention, but I really do not know what they have in mind if it is not this.

If they have made application to the province for 150th anniversary money, then it really would have been nice for them to tell us, and even nicer to involve us.

From my point of view the "gathering" place should be the civic plaza or the space in front of City Hall. Since the first one is barren and needs some activity, it would be the one I would pick to spend some money on. The space in front of City Hall looks nice enough as it is. It is green, it is simple, it is reasonably multipurpose.

In case others do not know what I am talking about, read this site.

http://www.spiritsquares.gov.bc.ca/program_description.html

spirit squares .... follows spirit bears ... and comes before spirit highways .... spirit parks, spirit arenas, spirit theatres, spirit schools ......

;-)

Posted by: owl on March 9 2007 2:08 AM

Oh, I forgot to point out is is part of the ActNow program ....

plus to remind everyone what the characteristics of a successful public square are

http://www.spiritsquares.gov.bc.ca/program_description.html

Posted by: owl on March 9 2007 2:28 AM