A city councillor wants to reduce congestion at Prince Arthur’s Landing by having Summer in the Parks scheduled on another day.
The concerts for the summer events have traditionally been held on Wednesdays -- the same day that the harbour is filled with boaters racing. The event usually runs from June until August.
With construction underway for the new condominiums and the Delta hotel, at-large Coun. Larry Hebert believes the marina might be too crowded.
Hebert said he will be putting forward the idea of moving Summer in the Parks to either Tuesdays or Thursdays at the next city council meeting.
“It has been quite a scene down there,” Hebert said.
“People have been parking illegally and security has been brought on as well. You might ask me ‘why not ask the boaters to move?’ Well, they were there first so they have seniority.
"Summer in the Parks used to be up at Waverly Park and they had a stage built. They moved down to Marina Park and it has been a great venue for it, but I just think it gets to congestion on a Wednesday evening.”
Hebert said he wants to make the change for this year and make it permanent. He’s hoping administration will have a report done by April.
Since Summer in the Parks moved to the marina, Hebert said he’s had a few people call him and voice concerns about how crowded the park gets.
“I’ve had a number of calls of people walking too far even though there’s a bus service being offered,” he said. “It was traditionally held on a Wednesday at Waverly Park. I presumed they kept the same night.”
Doug Henry, supervisor for the city’s recreation and culture division, said he will wait until council has formally requested a report before looking into changing the day Summer in the Parks is held. But even if the day were to change, Henry said he doesn’t think it will make any difference.
“Even if we moved it to Tuesday or Thursday, it is going to be very congested down there anyway,” Henry said.
“We try to encourage people to park in the downtown core, park in the parkade and we run a shuttle service. Regardless of it being on Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday night, I think we’re going to have people who want to park in the park and that’s just not feasible.”
Henry said there’s limited space at the marina, which is why the city encourages using the shuttle service and parking elsewhere.
Council last year voted to have the proposed event centre in downtown Port Arthur. Many residents in opposition to the idea agreed it was a bad location because of lack of parking.
Henry said the area is only going to get busier as the city builds up that area with the hotel, condos and event centre.
“In a vibrant city, in a vibrant downtown, that’s what you get,” he said. “If you go to Minneapolis, Minn. and you go to a Viking football game, it’s busy. That’s just the nature of the beast and for me that’s OK.”
He added there will be underground parking for the hotel and condos and a parkade is expected to be built for the event centre
