City of Powell River councillors and staff are lukewarm to a proposal for building a memorial park at Powell River Airport.
At the city’s committee of the whole meeting, Thursday, June 19, a proposal from the Rotary Club of Powell River to develop a park in memory of Harold Long was reviewed. Long was a former city councillor, member of the legislative assembly, and an aviation enthusiast.
In reviewing Rotary’s proposal at the meeting, Tor Birtig, director of infrastructure services, said the matter had come before council previously. In 2013 the Rotary club’s Roger Skorey made a presentation to the committee of the whole for consideration of developing a park in remembrance of Harold Long. The park would be located 40 metres north of the airport terminal building.
The park area would be about 12-metres by 12-metres and would feature a gazebo-like building with canvas-type top. A one-metre-high wall would surround the park so the Rotary club could place memorial plaques. It would also have benches so passengers at the airport could use the space.
“The problem staff have with this consideration is the parking lot requires a serious upgrade,” Birtig said. “I think a lot of you have gone though it and realize it is in poor condition.
“We need to rectify that situation so what we are looking into is an opportunity to utilize our gas tax fund and reroute the bus route through the area. Following that point we would make consideration to the structure, but at this point, we feel it is premature.”
Birtig said what the city has to determine from the club is whether it would consider looking at the upgrade to the airport terminal building and provide assistance in opening up the terminal.
“We have two office spaces in the terminal that have not been used,” he said. “We feel if we opened up that area it would deal with the peak demand times where the terminal
becomes congested.
“If Rotary would come on board, perhaps they could look at renaming the terminal in memory instead of a gazebo where the city would have ongoing maintenance costs.”
Councillor Debbie Dee said she thought it would be good if Rotary worked with the city to upgrade.
“You want to do the whole thing in harmony with each other.”
Mayor David Formosa said the club members have worked hard building the model of the proposed structure and want to talk to council about the initiative. He said they also want to put plaques there and use it as a revenue generator for the club. Formosa said if council looked at what staff is suggesting, naming the airport after Harold Long would be a huge honour.
He said he was willing to wait to hear the report from staff after having spoken with the Rotary club about partnering.
“If they feel what staff has in mind isn’t what they have in mind, then they need to come back and pitch to us why we should vote against the staff report,” he said.
