For the last several months, a day hasn't gone by that a user of the Northern B.C. YMCA hasn't asked a staff person behind the desk if they've heard when Masich Place will reopen. Instead of running, jogging or walking on a treadmill or taking their life into their hands taking to city streets and sidewalks, residents are eager to get back on the track.
Yet the City of Prince George has found a way to tarnish the grand reopening of Masich next month, thanks to a premature and tone-deaf announcement made last week by city administration.
Walkers and runners who like to use the track on a drop-in basis because it's safer than sidewalks and streets were told the the facility will only be available to them during a "concentrated period of time from the early morning to early afternoon," city public works director Gina Layte-Liston said Thursday.
That's not sitting well with the many residents eagerly anticipating using the track at their convenience for three seasons per year, as they did before. It's also not sitting well with at least one city councillor. Brian Skakun was on Facebook Sunday, encouraging residents to sign a petition against the reduced hours.
When city council approved the Masich renovation, seizing upon some available federal funding to make it happen, the mayor and councillors all talked about how well-used the facility is throughout the day, every day, by local residents through the spring, summer and fall months.
The people like their track and they want to use it because they don't have to dodge bicycles, as they do on city trails, they don't have to dodge traffic on city streets and they don't have to worry about charging dogs as they do walking on neighbourhood sidewalks.
They aren't interested in a municipal campaign telling them where else they can go.
There is a balancing act required with the new and improved Masich but it shouldn't be an obstacle.
The upgrades mean the facility, especially the field in the middle of the track, will be taken up far more often by user groups for football and soccer for much more of the year. That's on top of training sessions by the track and field club, elementary and secondary school meets and other special competitions.
In the same way that public skating is limited to certain hours at local arenas to accommodate hockey and figure skating, Masich will be closed to the public when user groups have booked the facility.
Yet even if user groups were to take double the hours they did before, there will still be plenty of off-hours, particularly weekday mornings and afternoons but also more than a few evenings and weekends, for drop-in users to circle the track or do stair climbing circuits in the stands.
But based on Layte-Liston's comments, it sounds like the facility might be locked up when a city employee isn't on site to watch out for vandalism or people misbehaving. Unless city administration has some information to the contrary, it's hard to imagine how vandalism was occurring in the washrooms beneath the stands or anywhere else at the facility during daylight hours with a steady traffic of people nearby.
With no specific times announced for drop-in users and nothing but a warming about limited access, it's no wonder people looking forward to getting back on their track are upset.
So now it's on the city council agenda for Monday, for mayor and council to clean up yet another policy and communication mess made by administration who seem so preoccupied with facility maintenance that they turn a blind eye to the needs and wants of the taxpaying public who actually use these facilities.
Based on Skakun's comments to The Citizen and his Facebook posts, particularly when he was challenged to do more than just endorse the petition, city council will likely make public access to Masich a priority.
Everybody seems to be talking about Masich right now but until this controversy is dealt with, the chatter is for all the wrong reasons.
-- Editor-in-chief Neil Godbout
