Fence installed around the gazebo on River Street, August 9. (Dawson Thompson/paNOW Staff)

By Dawson Thompson

Downtown Fencing

Fence installed around Gazebo on River Street

Aug 9, 2021 | 4:11 PM

The city of Prince Albert recently put up a six-foot-tall fence around the gazebo on River Street West.

The decision was made according to Mayor Greg Dionne due to an increase of recent vandalism, inappropriate behaviour, and improper activities at the facility that is not acceptable to the city. He did not elaborate on what “improper activities” took place.

“We have invested lots of money in that octagon this year with new paint, new boarding, new lighting, and really made it look good,” Dionne told paNOW.

According to the city, they had run out of solutions leading to the choice of putting up the fence.

“It was a hard decision, but we decided to put the fence back up around the octagon to protect the property,” Dionne said. “It looks really good now that we fixed it up, but I am sad that is has been vandalized.

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“We had to re-paint it once already, shortly after we did paint it. It is unfortunate we had to take this action, but at this point there is no other solution on how to protect the cities assets.”

Fence installed around the gazebo on River Street, August 9. (Dawson Thompson/paNOW Staff)

There is no time frame at the moment for how long the fence will be up but the city hopes the fence will enforce a change in actions from the public.

“I hope the fence sends a message to the general public, if you are going to abuse something, you will soon not have access to it,” Dionne said.

Homelessness and addictions

Councillor for ward two Terra Lennox-Zepp wants to see more investment and time put into homelessness and addictions in the future.

“In a country as wealthy as ours, it is an unfortunate situation that we still have problems of homelessness and addictions in our community,” Lennox-Zepp said. “I very much would like to see the problems addressed.”

Margo Fournier Centre

The fence around the Margo Fournier Centre that was put up in the middle of July is still up and the city has no plans at the moment to take it down anytime soon.

“It did solve the [problem], everyone there feels safe, and we have had no more damage,” Dionne said. “It does prove that the fencing works.”

The fence is still up around the Margo Fournier Centre, which was placed in the middle of July. August 9, 2021. (Dawson Thompson/paNOW Staff)

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dawson.thompson@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @dawsonthompson8