In 1961, Elks Club volunteers created a small park in Barrhead, near today’s Co-op. Maybe the triangular patch of ground is not that well known outside the neighbourhood.
Yet to residents in the area, Triangle Park has been a ground where children and grandchildren have spent many happy hours on a swing or slide. Or having fun on a bouncy frog.
Now there is not much of anything there after the playground was removed over two weeks ago. Gone went the swing, the slide and the frog, leaving a dirt pit like a scar in the grass. Gone too went the fence.
Normally the removal wouldn’t have raised an eyebrow. Normally, however, such actions are authorized by Barrhead town council. In this case they were not.
Instead, the Public Services committee made a recommendation that the equipment be taken away. There was no council input.
One of those upset by what has happened is town councillor Shelley Oswald, who said she only found out through a phone call.
“This did not come to council, so none of us had a chance to discuss it,” she said. “That is the proper process.”
“The park was built by the Elks for the kids,” she added. “I would like to see this park rededicated to the Elks.”
Oswald was unimpressed by the notion that the playground equipment had been unsafe.
“We have the same equipment in other parks in this community,” she said. “We have the same equipment at Lion’s Park.”
On Monday, Oswald raised the issue at Town council where three Public Services members sit: chairman Don Smith, Madelaine Wessel and Roy Ulmer.
Smith accepted the matter should have been referred to the council.
“We missed a step,” he said.
He added the equipment in the park had been old and the park in need of a clean-up.
Wessell said she had been unaware of the history of the park and the Elks’ involvement.
“This issue should come back to council,” she said.
The council agreed to survey residents in the area and give them a chance to have a say in the park’s future.
Last Friday, Oswald and several residents met at the park, which lies south and east of 49th Street and 50th Avenue. They discussed options, and residents handed her completed surveys.
One of those present was Agnes Mary Kuropatwa, whose late husband, Barnie, helped found Triangle Park with fellows Elks members Peter Craig, Peter Foth and John Schultz.
“This park used to be full of kids,” said Kuropatwa.
Ideas for the park included green space, horseshoe pits, benches and swings. There was concern that it should not become a place for dogs or litterbugs.
Barb Callihoo, Oswald’s mother, said she would like to see an old-fashioned swing installed.
“I would like to swing on it,” she said.
