Security fencing went up Wednesday around one of Penticton’s most public of places: the Gyro Park bandshell. The move was recommended by city staff to help limit vagrancy, vandalism and other nuisances inside the structure, which regularly played host to community events before the pandemic.
“This is such a sad state where there’s just no respect given,” said Coun. Judy Sentes ahead of a 5-0 vote in favour of the fencing.
“I appreciate people’s circumstances and homelessness is an awful thing, but they just have a lack of respect for the areas they think they have an entitlement to.”
Blake Laven, the city’s director of development service, told council other measures, including sirens and strobe lights, were tried in 2016 with limited effect and to the annoyance of neighbours. The option of fencing was presented to council in 2017, but went nowhere.
Now, though, with pandemic-related health restrictions scuttling events in Gyro Park, city staff feels it’s the right time to put up fencing.
“We’re proposing this for the short term until events come back on and more normal use of the bandshell can occur,” said Laven.
In the longer term, he hopes other security solutions can be found by assessing the site through the lens of crime prevention and soliciting input from some city advisory committees.
Mayor John Vassilaki suggested the expansion of BC Housing services in Penticton is partly to blame for attracting undesirables to the bandshell and other public spaces.
“It’s a shame that now we have to start gating all our facilities to make sure they don’t get destroyed by those folks who are out there,” said Vassilaki.
“And I just hope BC Housing is paying attention to the mess they’re creating – not only in Penticton, but all over British Columbia.”
The bandshell was built in 1951 by the now-defunct Gyro Club and is included on the city’s heritage registry.
From the Penticton Herald