A place to play, but no place to park: public meeting gets testy in Happy Valley-Goose Bay

A debate over parking became fiery Thursday night at a public meeting about a Happy Valley-Goose Baysports centre. 

Dozens gathered at the E.J. Broomfield Memorial Arena to meet with town council to voice concerns about the lack of an adequate parking space at the Mealy Mountain Collegiate Sports Complex.

"It's very frustrating — I'll try to remain calm," said Barry Keough, who spoke on behalf of the men's slow-pitch softball league.

"We've been dealing with this for a while — butting heads, not getting closer to a solution but getting further from a solution it seems," he said. 

"Tthe current situation we got here right now is there's no parking at that facility – zero."

Residents connected the lack of parking to safety concerns, since emergency vehicles cannot access the field.

As well, they said the grounds are inaccessible to those with disabilities or injuries, the elderly, and parents with young children.

The town has recently locked a gate to the facility to keep out ATVs and motorbikes. This move has also locked out players and spectators alike from the space they had been using as a parking lot.

Keough argued that the town has forbidden them from parking both at a nearby playground and on a nearby road, and that the the school board has forbidden them from parking at Mealy Mountain Collegiate, located about half a kilometer from the ball field.

To park or not to park

Confusion over whether parking at Mealy Mountain Collegiate was permitted led to some heated arguing between members of council and members of the softball league.

Keough told the assembly that the school board told him "in no uncertain terms" that nobody was permitted to park at Mealy Mountain Collegiate because of liability issues.  

Keough said that he was shown an email that was sent to town officials asking who had given them permission to tell people they could park at the school.

Town council argued, however, that parking at the school was permitted.

"You do have parking — Mealy Mountain Collegiate!" said Coun. Jackie Compton Hobbs, whose comment was met by jeering and booing from the crowd.

"Would you park that far from a council meeting?" one man could be heard shouting.

"You said right now there is zero parking, and that's been contradicted, cause there is an option — and please don't boo and groan and moan," Deputy Mayor Cora Hamel Pardy said later in the meeting.

No solution reached

The town presented a proposal to clear an undisclosed amount of land for a new parking lot. 

Coun. Tony Chubbs said the proposed parking lot was too large, and that it was detrimental to the long-term plan for the complex.

"You'll have two ballfields, a soccer field, the skateboard park, the little bike rodeo that's there, and that's it. We're done," he said. 

"A large parking lot for 50 vehicles is going to burn up the rest of that complex."

No solution was reached at the consultation, although Coun. Reg Bowers's suggestion to simply give the softball team a key to unlock the gates was meet with cheers and applause.