Saint John council giving city staff the green light to close Mispec Park until further notice because of “significant” damage to the beach believed to have been caused by higher than normal tides and a storm surge.
The damage includes the wooden stairs and the slope between the beach and the parking lot. A report from staff says there’s no safe access to the beach right now and there’s no money budgeted for fixing it. Just three years ago $257,000 went into fixing up that slope. Councillor-at-large Shirley McAlary takes issue with the closure of the park.
“It’s mother nature and you can’t stop it, nobody can stop it. So if we take another $350-400,000 out of city funding and fix this up in no time it could happen again,” says councillor McAlary. In fact, the report from staff is not hopeful saying that no reasonable option will guarantee the land won’t continue eroding.
Ward 4 councillor Ray Strowbridge says he can’t support closing the park and that there’s nothing wrong with it — the problem is the beach.
“To put the gate across and keep people out of it completely, I mean, the walking trails are all still good too people still like to go there. It’s the beach that’s broken there’s nothing wrong with the rest of it,” says Strowbridge, who also commented that a gate won’t stop people.
The vote to endorse closure of the park and to have staff bring back a report within six weeks was 7-3 with councillors Strowbridge, McAlary and Merrithew voting against.
