Street fest draws senior safety concerns

Bruce Allanson was one of many Lennoxville residents who made the trip to the monthly Borough Council Meeting on Tuesday evening to express their concerns. A resident of the Saint Francis Manor on Queen Street, Allanson shared mixed feelings about the way that the annual street festival was organized this year, particularly with regard to the area around the seniors’ residence.

While sharing that he and thousands of others enjoyed the day as a whole, the resident explained that it was a source of great anxiety to himself and others in

the residence that the two main entrances to the building were blocked, one by a collection of booths and tables, and the other by an immovable stage.

“Who in their right mind would have put people in peril like that?” Allanson asked, adding, “there’s no way, unless they dropped it in by helicopter, that any emergency vehicle could have got into that back yard.”

The decision, he said, placed over 100 people in a very precarious position.

“Fortunately nothing happened, we were spared,” he said.

Top of being a source of anxiety, Allanson said that the barriers made it hard for residents with walkers to even get to the street to enjoy the festival, and suggested that the organizers’ placement of equipment and displays neglected to consider the needs of the residents at all

“I only hope this never happens again and us seniors are thought of more than what you did on Saturday,” he said. “Please, whatever you do, don’t make it more difficult for us old people.”

Borough President Claude Charron told The Record that he had noticed the issue himself during set up for the festival early Saturday morning and heard several complaints about it over the course of the day. He pointed out that there was an effort made to try to open up the entrance between the Royal Bank and the Jean-coutu pharmacy and also highlighted the fact that the residence has a third entrance that would have allowed emergency access, but nonetheless expressed that the situation should have been handled differently.

“For sure it won’t be repeated next year,” he said, also expressing concern about the fact that Allanson’s comment implied that there had been no prior communication about the blocked driveways between the security team and the manor.