'A black eye': Prince Albert removes fences surrounding downtown Margo Fournier Centre, gazebo

Prince Albert deals with vandalism WATCH: CTV Prince Albert's Jayda Taylor explains why the city has fenced off a downtown gazebo.

PRINCE ALBERT — The City of Prince Albert has removed fences surrounding two downtown properties following discussions of alternative solutions to crime and loitering.

The city put up a fence around the Margo Fournier Centre last summer and re-installed it this year to protect staff from crime and used needles in the area.

This summer, it installed a fence around the gazebo after people were using it as a washroom and vandalizing it.

Ward 3 Coun. Tony Head put forward a motion at Monday’s City Council meeting to have the fences taken down.

“What’s to stop people from getting mugged outside that fence? I mean, we put a fence around the whole entire (city), that’s not going to do it. We need to address it,” he said.

Mayor Greg Dionne strongly opposed taking the fences down until the winter, saying his priority is protecting staff and seniors who use the nearby heritage centre, for example.

“I’m publicly going to show the pictures of what made that fence go up and then you’re going to be ashamed of our city,” he told Head.

“That’s more embarrassing to me than those fences.”

Several councillors brought up alternative, more long-term solutions to address crime and loitering downtown.

Ward 1 Coun. Charlene Miller suggested opening up the Margo Fournier Centre to people living on the streets as a place to cool down. She also said she’s brought up in previous meetings having washrooms downtown, as well as questioning how much it costs to regularly spray down the gazebo instead of fencing it.

“It’s a black eye on our city considering the conditions that we’re actually talking about, reconciliation and doing our best for people – they’re people. We’re all people,” she said.

Ward 8 Coun. Dennis Orgodnick said the city shelved a 2011 report that contained 10 years of recommendations for improving the downtown core. Ward 2 Coun. Terra Lennox-Zepp agreed that a downtown revitalization could improve crime rate.

Head’s motion passed by a 5-4 margin.

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