FORT FRANCES – The senior centre of Fort Frances has asked the town’s administration to modify current parking regulations to allow increased access to the centre.
“We've got a very small parking lot here and people tend to park on both sides of the road,” said Cindy Noble, senior centre manager. “They’re getting tickets because there’s no place for them to park.”
On Monday July 8, the town council voted in favour of having the issue reviewed by the town’s administration who was asked to provide recommendations to council. Councillor Wendy Brunetta said that the issue of parking at the senior has previously centre come up for discussion when she served on the senior centre board.
“We did talk about the parking lot behind Saint Mary's Church there,” said Brunetta. “I realize some people are not as able bodied and can’t walk that distance, but we did talk briefly about maybe having a golf cart or something that could shuttle people back and forth.”
Noble said that the senior centre is ideally looking to free up space currently marked as no parking on the east side of Victoria Avenue, south of Nelson Street, next to the senior centre.
“It worked really good during June when they didn't ticket us at all for Nelson Street,” said Noble. “They gave us street parking on both sides for June, and that worked really well.”
Both sides of Victoria Avenue between Nelson and Sinclair Street are marked as no parking except for the nearby health centre who has limited space for its own use.
Chelsea Greig, deputy clerk for the town of Fort Frances, said that Victoria Avenue south of Church Street is marked no parking on both sides of the Avenue as it is a truck route, and no parking is allowed to ensure room for trucks, particularly oversized trucks to turn onto/off of Victoria from Church Street.
“When they added on to the senior centre last summer and fall, the guys all parked along [Victoria Ave.] when they were working,” said Noble. “It didn’t interfere with trucking so we’re wondering why we couldn’t have the six or eight spots there.”
Fort Frances Times/ Local Journalism Initiative
