Discussion on Open Air footprint returns to Amherstburg council

The conversation of the Open Air footprint will make its way back to Amherstburg council this evening. 

Council will be presented with four different options to extend the footprint, and include additional businesses for the event. 

At the end of March, council had asked administration to see if businesses further south on Dalhousie Street, between Murray Street and Gore Street, can be included this year in the footprint, and to reach out to those living at Queen Charlotte for their opinion. 

While none of the options were recommended by administration, they did state Option 4 is preferred, which would see half the road on Dalhousie just south of Murray included in the footprint, and would now include the Royal Canadian Legion. 

Meanwhile the other half of the road, near the Queen Charlotte residence, would remain barriered off as residents were unhappy with the proposed options that would restrict their parking at the building.

Option 4 has two options, one would be the use of fencing and jersey barriers at a cost of $3,800, while the other would be to just use jersey barriers as they are safer for pedestrians. For just jersey barriers along that closure it would cost between $10,000 and $15,000. 

Chris Gibb, Amherstburg deputy mayor, says he's pleased to see that the Royal Canadian Legion would be included in the footprint if approved.

"They have a great patio set up, so there's a lot of opportunity to bring people down there and experience the Legion. Hopefully that option, you know, we'll see how it goes. We'll see what council decides, it's not a perfect solution, so we'll have to see."

He says he doesn't think there's any great solutions to the issue.

"The fencing seems like an easy option, but then there's safety issues with that. When you mix pedestrians and vehicular traffic, do you want to save money at the expense of people's safety? I would lean towards the jersey barriers, it's more expensive, but it is safer."

Gibb says administration has been working to provide more information on the event. 

"Our Town Accessibility Committee mentioned that we should advertise the fact that we have more accessible parking spaces right in the downtown core. There's a parking lot near the Navy Yard Park that generally is open to parking for anyone, but during Open Air we convert that to only accessible parking."

If council approves Option 4, regardless of if they do the fencing and jersey barriers, or just the jersey barriers, they will need to be ordered and will take two to three weeks to be delivered.

This means the barriers for a new footprint wouldn't be set up until July 1. 

Open Air will run each weekend until the Labour Day weekend in September. 

Council meets tonight at 6 p.m.