Jennifer McKenzie, school board trustee, stands next to the new section of the fence beside the Community Gardens.
The Ottawa-Carleton District School Board has not yet made a decision regarding pedestrian access to the green space between Laurier Avenue West and Slater Street.
The area is fenced in, but there are openings so people can walk through the field to access a transit stop on Slater Street.
Earlier this year, a man fell and seriously injured himself when he entered the field through an opening on Laurier Avenue where there is a downward slope.
The school board, concerned about safety and liability, closed the opening. This caused widespread disapproval from members of the community who wanted the opening to remain as it was.
Kurt Millar, a community member, says he thinks the issue is pretty straightforward.
“If people are worried about slipping then they can go around, other people can go through,” he says. “Anyone who has an IQ over 80 can figure that out.”
Jennifer McKenzie, the school board trustee for Somerset and Kitchissipi, held a meeting last month to discuss this issue with the community.
“Since there is so little green space in the neighbourhood, the field has become very important to members of the community who live in the vicinity,” she says.
“But the [school] board has its concerns as well, so my goal is to find a mutually agreeable solution.”
Somerset Ward Coun. Diane Holmes attended the meeting at Centennial Public School. She says it became clear early on in the meeting that the location of the opening was a key issue.
“It’s very important to the residents to be able to have what is an easy pedestrian access to transit,” she says. “But the school board was suggesting a path further to the west, through their parking lot, where there aren’t any slopes.”
Hima Himawan, a member of the community, says six different resolutions were presented at the meeting. He says there are various options for where the opening of the gate could be, as well as suggestions to grate the slope properly to avoid any accidents.
A vote was held to see how members of the community viewed these six possible resolutions, but Millar says it was problematic.
“The voting wasn’t really yes or no, it was more like ‘What’s your first choice? If you can’t have that, what’s your second choice?’ so people were voting two, three, maybe four times. The vote, in the end, didn’t really amount to anything,” he says.
“They just wanted some ideas from us, but the board did say it would be their decision in the end,” says Millar.
Himawan says he thought the meeting was well-attended and he trusts the board to consider the views of the community.
According to McKenzie, these community members are a small portion of the many people who attended the meeting, where residents also discussed the proper use of the field for dog owners.
“It was a big turnout,” McKenzie says. “The board staff heard the community, and the community was able to hear our concerns as well.”