Thorold City Council wants more public hours at the Haj-Ahmad Family Foundation running track of the Canada Games Park — and they’re willing to pay for them.
It was Councillor Anthony Longo who came forward with the proposal during Wednesday’s city budget deliberations.
“There’s a number of frustrated users,” he told other councillors. “Our primetime hours on the walking track have been taken over by permit users.”
As ThoroldToday reported, Thorold residents can freely use the track on the weekend, but during the week they are only allowed on between 7 a.m. and 4 p.m.
That’s why Councillor Longo is proposing that the city buy time on the track from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Monday to Friday.
“The City of Thorold can pay for it and I will welcome anyone in the region to come and walk on the track,” he said.
ASM Global, the group that manages the track, told ThoroldToday a few weeks ago that they decided on the limited public hours because of safety concerns.
“Not all running is created equal,” said the regional director of marketing for the facility, Kay Meilleur. “The problem with having multiple user groups on the same running track at the same time is that there is going to be an accident.”
In his proposal, Councillor Longo emphasized that he wants the track to be used for walking during Thorold’s paid hours.
“I think when it’s a walking track it needs to be a walking track,” he told councillors. “The reason I say that is because there’s every age group on that walking track. There’s people in wheel chairs, there’s people in walkers, young mothers with strollers — it’s great. The more we can promote it, the more people we can get out there.”
But not every councillor agrees with paying for more usage.
“A lot of money went into that building,” said Councillor Henry D’Angela. “I think we should have some say. ‘These are our hours and we’re making them available to the whole public.’”
In the end, councillors set aside $17,000 in the city budget for the proposal. To secure the hours, the city will have to negotiate with the consortium group.
