A new washroom and canteen facility is part of proposed plans for Dominion Park in west Saint John. (Image: Dominion Park Community Association/Facebook video capture)
The Dominion Park Community Association has unveiled its plans to upgrade the west side park.
Association members hosted a brief virtual presentation earlier this week to outline the plans.
“It’s an incredible vision of the future of the park,” said Derek Chaisson, chair of the association.
Chaisson the park was established in the early 1900s and grew in popularity over the decades before eventually stemming off.
The dance hall located at the park burned down in 1968 and the city replaced it with a smaller canteen and washroom facility.
“Through the 1990s and 2000s, the city population continued to shrink, budgets shrank and care for the park was continuously dialed back,” said Chaisson.
Historic flooding in 2018 and 2019 along the Saint John River “decimated” the canteen and washroom facility, leaving it unfit to serve the community, he said.
Chaisson said the city hosted four community meetings over the past decade to discuss potential investment in the park.
But each time, he said the city brought forward an already-developed park plan, leaving the community to feel like it had no ownership in it.
“A group of community members from the 2019 meeting viewed this problem as an opportunity to build a bond between the community, the city, and a park plan that would meet the needs of all parties involved,” said Chaisson.
That led to the “unofficial” creation in December 2019 of the Dominion Park Community Association, which was officially registered in May 2020.
Chaisson said the association held a number of community engagement meetings in early 2020, before the pandemic hit, to gather input from park users.
“We were able to leverage the data that we collected to create a list of needs and wants for the community and park,” he said.
Among the plans for the park are upgraded beach access and shaded seating, a modified entry road, a new boat launch and expanded boat parking, a new elevated seawall, a modern washroom and canteen space, an upgraded trail system, and a revitalized playground.
Chaisson said the next step in the process is to plan out the work in phases.
“Once our sponsorship and construction plan is complete, we will begin the process of attracting and securing sponsors and donors that fit well with each aspect of the park,” he said.
You can provide feedback and learn more about the plans during the annual park clean-up from 9 a.m. to noon on Saturday.
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