Dominion Park in Saint John is getting more upgrades, according to the community organization that oversaw the first phase.
In 2018, the park’s canteen was destroyed by flooding when the Saint John River hit historic highs. The building was ultimately demolished.
“(It) led to the destruction of the facility,” said Dominion Park Community Association Chair Derek Chaisson. “That’s when the community began coming together to effectively build a new plan.
Cue phase one, which included accessibility upgrades like wheelchair access to the beach, changing rooms and a new canteen with washrooms.
“Phase one included remediating the area where the canteen used to be at the centre of the park and built the Sunset Plaza there,” he said. “We also made some changes to the parking lot eliminating the road loop for some green space.”
The total cost was around $1.5 million, he explained, with help from several levels of government, donors and fundraising.
Now, the group is working toward the second phase of the project. It will include remediated trail access, a new lookout and a playground site.
“(The) lookout would kind of shelter the edge of water and the playground would be relocated from this location here where kids have to cross a parking lot to gain access to and moved up to this area where there is actually clearer lines of sight from the beach to the playground area,” Chaisson said.
The group anticipates a similar price tag to the first phase, once again hoping for support from the different levels of government and donors.
Marc Dionne, the director of parks for the City of Saint John, said the city is ready to contribute $400,000 to the project.
“If we can get appropriate funds raised and we can complete that to me that would be an extremely exciting thing,” he said in an interview Tuesday.
He said it is important to revitalize parks like Dominion to offer people great spaces to spend their time. It also could be an attractive feature to those looking to make Saint John home.
As for Chaisson, Dominion Park is worth every penny.
“This is a super passionate community,” he said. “I grew up on Milford Road myself, basically all of our board are from around here, we love this place.”
The second phase is expected to be complete by the summer of 2025.