Late night bite

THUNDER BAY -- Residents can now place their food and drink orders a bit later at the Prince Arthur’s Landing restaurant.

The Bight restaurant at Marina Park had to close at 11 p.m. because of a municipal bylaw. The original bylaw barred the public from the park between 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. City council on Monday voted to amend the law and allow the restaurant to continue serving until 1 a.m.

At-Large Coun. Larry Hebert pointed out that the amendment looked specifically at Prince Arthur’s Landing and wondered if it should be broader.

Parks manager Paul Fayrick said there’s a number of issues that need to be addressed, including the fact that the public technically shouldn’t be in the park when the city has its firework display on Canada Day since it takes place at 11 p.m.

Since some of those issues may require public consultation, Fayrick said they wanted to just focus on a single issue involving this restaurant.

“The condominiums are going to have people entering and existing at all hours of the day and night,” he said.

“What we want to do is deal with specifically with the restaurant. Part of the discussion with the hotel operator and developers in the Marina Park area is designating areas where we might want to have no restrictions.”

At-Large Coun. Iain Angus suggested that Fayrick should also look at the 11 p.m. bylaw and possibly having extended hours during the summer.

“It really doesn’t make sense to chase people out of a public park just as the sun is going down,” he said.

In other business, council also passed the Urban Forest Master Plan in principal and planned to revisit it.

Council was to hear from the Thunder Bay Youth Suicide Prevention Task Force but that was taken off the agenda. Also taken off the meeting’s schedule was the assessment of the Atlantic Avenue Water Pollution Control Plant following the May 28th flooding disaster.

That report will be coming to council on Feb. 4.