Saint John resident organizing community group to help upgrade Dominion Park

A longtime resident of Saint John’s west side is hoping a new community organization can help foster improvements to Dominion Park.

Derek Chaisson said he spent countless summer days at the beach with his friends, swimming and playing, and enjoying treats sold at the canteen.

The canteen building featured washrooms, change rooms, and work and storage space for the beach’s lifeguards. It has been deemed unusable after incurring back-to-back years of damage from flooding in 2018 and 2019.

READ MORE: Saint John council makes 1st comments on 2020 ‘transitional’ budget

“So now this canteen is going to end up coming down in a couple weeks to a month,” Chaisson said. “So, yeah, that kind of breaks my heart. I remember standing on the steps waiting for the next round of ice cream and all that kind of stuff.”

Chaisson is organizing a community association to look at ideas and fundraising options to upgrade the park. It will hold a workshop open to the public on January 18^th at the Milford Community Centre starting at 9:30 a.m.

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“We’ll do a review of what’s going on with the park,” he began. “We’ll go over the budget, we’ll go over what we think we could potentially raise through fundraising. And then we’ll go through a process of generating ideas.”

READ MORE: Recreation programs still on Saint John council chopping block

Chaisson said the City of Saint John is collaborating with the new group. The city is in a challenging position financially with a fiscal deficit and impending program cuts.

“With the city’s fiscal position currently, it’s really important for communities to step up and help source funding to replace structures like this,” Chaisson said.

The city has budgeted $285,000 for the project in 2020, according to Tim O’Reilly, the deputy commissioner of parks and public places. About $150,000 of that will come from insurance money collected as the result of the damaged canteen building.

READ MORE: Saint John Mayor Don Darling says 2019 a ‘make-or-break’ year for city

O’Reilly said the city is pleased to see a community group step forward to work on a solution for Dominion Park, much like previous projects including a playground at Seaside Elementary School.

“Ultimately, from the city’s perspective, we want improvements to reflect what the community desires,” O’Reilly said. “So it’s always an excellent initiative for the community group to represent the neighbourhood, and to make sure that we have improvements that represent what the community wants.”

Chiasson said residents are already coming forward with ideas, and admitted he has a few of his own.

“There’s no public boat launch until you go out to Brundage Point in Grand Bay,” he stated. “So we live in Saint John yet we don’t have access to the St. John River. We would obviously like to replace the canteen, washrooms, change rooms, and potentially build a better facility.”