By Khang Nguyen

Council decides on walkway closures

Nov 10, 2015 | 5:21 AM

The question of walkway closures has long been a popular topic at city council meetings. On Monday night’s meeting, the city’s elected officials were able to deal with three of them.

Council voted in favour of closing the walkways which connect 22nd St. and Agnew St.

However, the walkway abutting 3065 Sherman Dr. will remain open.

With several residents sitting in the gallery, council deliberated on the fate of the walkway. In the end, council sided with those in the gallery to keep the walkway open.

“All of the people that showed up tonight were in support of keeping the walkway open,” Mayor Greg Dionne said. “I think that’s what swayed it. The ‘noes’ were not here and the ‘yesses’ were, so good on the community for taking the time to come out and say they wanted the walkway left alone.”

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One of those ‘yesses’ was Rory McIntosh who said council made the right decision.

 “I think it’s a decision for the future. I think it’s important that these walkways stay open. They are a public resource. They’re valuable to the community and they connect communities and that’s what we need,” McIntosh.

The walkway, which connects to Dent Park, has been the cause for many discussions with this being the third request for the walkway to be closed.

“This is a real bad walkway in that it’s pitted neighbour against neighbour,” Dionne said.

The walkway discussion reached its peak at the Ward 6 neighbourhood meeting on Oct.21 where residents firmly made their case on why the walkway should be closed leading to one family walking out of the meeting.

“Walkways are a community, it’s how we move around. It’s not just the person that owns the property beside it,” Dionne said. “I’ve been in the park and I’ve talked to the people in the park. They use that little walkway.

“The other pathways we closed tonight, the neighborhood overwhelmingly wanted them closed and we did the right thing. But this one, I’ve heard the opposite.”

knguyen@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @khangvnguyen