Petition asks city to reconsider moving park playground
It may be too late to save the beloved Kinsmen Park playground, but Ward 1 Coun. Darren Hill supports at least pausing its dismantling.
Robin Hansen, a Nutana mother of two young boys, presented to Hill an online petition with 812 signatures to save the park, on Monday.
“If they have a petition that’s got 800 signatures on it, I think that certainly warrants attention from council and administration,” Hill said.
Hill doesn’t have the authority to halt the takedown as the petition requests, but this week’s heavy rains will likely have the same effect, he said.
The petition is going to city administration and next Monday’s meeting of the planning committee.
Hansen said the decision to take down the old playground, located next to Saskatoon City Hospital, and relocate it to Ashworth Holmes Park in Caswell Hill doesn’t make sense.
“I have two small children and this is a great place for them to go,” she said. She said the money spent moving the playground would be better spent buying a new one for Caswell Hill.
“I just think that as a city we need to make a better decision than this.”
Community consultation about Kinsmen Park started in 2007 and at that time it was clearly communicated the old playground would be removed to make room for cross-country skiers who lost trail space to the new PotashCorp Playland, Hill said.
However the city didn’t realize the old playground served a much younger demographic than Playland and residents didn’t fully understand what was planned, he said.
“I can’t say at this point if we’ve made a mistake, but I think the opportunity to pause and to reconsider it, to look at it, to see what is in the best interests of the citizens of Saskatoon, should be considered at this time.”
He emphasized the pool is gone for good as it’s too old to keep in service.
However, stopping the work could come with a cost. The city has already awarded contracts for the dismantling of the playground and its reinstallation at Caswell Hill.
If the financial penalties are too onerous and the project goes ahead as planned, an area more suitable for younger kids could be added on to the Playland, Hill said.
“I certainly think that could present itself, absolutely,” he said.
Given the nine-year gap between consultation and implementation of the plan — due to the time to find funding — the plan should have been revisited with the community, he said.