HUNTSVILLE, ON- A park in Huntsville is being turned into a parking lot, temporarily.
As of Tuesday morning, Riverside Park, a small patch of green space across the bridge from Huntsville’s downtown, has been converted into a temporary staging area for John Bravakis Enterprises Limited.
The company has been hired by the District of Muskoka to do major work on King William Street, which will start on the roadway just next to the park in the near future.
The park’s conversion has come with some significant changes, with trees being removed to clear out the middle of the space, along with the signage for the site being moved. That change didn’t go over well with local activist Peggy Peterson, who went to the park to protest on Tuesday morning.
Peterson told the MyMuskokaNow.com newsroom that she had seen workers loading one of the park’s trees into a dumpster while driving past on Monday evening, which made her aware of the work at the site.
She subsequently took to social media to draw attention to what was going on, and was at the site on Tuesday with a sign and small table.
“We have to stop this,” said Peterson, on Tuesday.
“We don’t have that much parkland, we certainly don’t have that much waterfront parkland, we can’t use River Mill that often because often it smells like sewage. This is where we gather, this is where regular people get to come down and have a park by the river.”
She wants the municipal authorities to get the company to use the parking across the street from the park, instead of the park itself.
“I would have loved to be in the room where they said “oh you can have it, it’s ok, we don’t use it.” Well who doesn’t use it? We use it,” said Peterson.
“So, a parking lot? No. We have parking lots. When we look across the street, we see all kinds of parking lot, so they can negotiate for some other location that will be convenient for them, but we need our park.”
According to Huntsville mayor Scott Aitchison, the company needs to use the park as a temporary staging ground due to the work that needs to get done on the road nearby.
“The reason they need it, I think, is because they need to dig so deep in that location,” said Aitchison.
“It’s the deepest part of the excavation, for the work on King William Street.”
He indicated that the company’s use of the park would have been part of the contract for the work, made available by the Town of Huntsville and the District of Muskoka. He also indicated that it would be restored by the company after the work was done.
“I knew that the park would be obviously changed, pretty dramatically, but they had to return it to what it was before, or better,” said Aitchison.
“Of course, that is the plan. Do you think they’re just going to dig it up and leave it?”
He also touched on the town’s ownership of the park, in response to Peterson stating that it had originally been a gift to the community with conditions on it’s use.
“That’s not true,” said Aitchison.
“We bought the property in 1986, we paid money for it, it belongs to the town.”
He said that the company would use the park for as long as they needed it for that stage of their work, though he was unsure how long that would be. He expected it would be “better than it was before” following the future restoration work, which the company would be responsible for.
As for whether or not it came before council for a decision, Aitchison indicated it had not.
“It’s not the kind of thing that would go before council,” said Aitchison.
“We’re not getting rid of a park; we’re not spending all kinds of local taxpayers’ money on the park. It’s a temporary use that would be a decision, obviously delegated to staff.”
Peterson will likely maintain her opposition to the project as it continues the use of the park.
“Maybe they’ll restore it, they won’t be able to restore those trees that we paid to put there, but it doesn’t matter,” said Peterson.
“The people need the park this summer, with all this construction and the heat, we need to have this place to come.”