Vision for park revealed

Roger Knox - Vernon Morning Star Published: July 14, 2009 7:00 PM

A safe place to go, friendly for families, lots of features, accessible and attainable. That’s how a refurbished Polson Park would look to City of Vernon staff. Following a consultation process with stakeholders on how to improve Polson Park, and a two-hour visioning session with mayor and council at the park, staff forwarded a report to council, summarizing that “Polson Park should be a safe, family-oriented park, with a variety of high-quality amenities that serve an array of interests, and are unprogrammed, accessible and attainable.” “City and parks staff met after the visioning meeting to discuss the results of that session, results of the stakeholder consultation and to identify preliminary directions...,” said Kim Flick, manager of planning and building for the city. Some ideas put forth by council and stakeholders groups for the park include a possible new track, additional running and cycling trails, an outdoor skating rink, more signage and more seating.Safety for all users was also an important topic brought up during consultation.

Asked about a possible timeline for work beginning on the report, Flick replied “as soon as humanly possible.” However, one councillor noted that a certain amenity was notably absent from the report. Patrick Nicol asked if anything specific was going to be done to replace the historic grandstand, which burned to the ground in an arson fire in 2006. Portable trailers currently sit on the site of the structure. “There was, throughout the consultation, a strong emotional and historic attachment to that structure,” said Flick. “The investigation happened as to whether that seating should be replaced in the park, maybe to a lesser extent. If it’s not replaced to a similar extent, or of the same grandeur, it is highly desirable to recognize the grandstand through signage or pictures, something that would keep the memory of that structure alive in the future of the park.” Flick said staff is considering smaller seating be implemented in the park, such as in the form of metal bleachers, but no final decision on seating has been made. Nicol said the old grandstand and the current bandshell are connected, and that if the city is going to put events on in the park, there has to be some sort of seating structure, and that the city has to get it right. “Clearly, it’s not going to be the size of the previous grandstand, based on this report and what we hear coming out of Greater Vernon Services,” said the longtime councillor. “If you want people to use the park for an event, we have to update...Add a facility that is equipped and can function, not just now, because we’re talking the next 20, 30, 40, 50 years. “To me, that’s one of the critical elements we have to get right if you want people using that facility.”Council voted to send Flick’s report to the Greater Vernon Advisory Committee for its review and consideration, and to the stakeholder groups that provided their input.