Park Space

Vickers Park to See Accessibility Improvements, Other Work

An over-century-old park on Thunder Bay’s south side will see some improvements, with a lot of the planned work going toward making the historical space more accessible.

The city's current capital budget set aside money to replace the existing playground structures at Vickers Park, says Cory Halvorsen, the city’s manager of parks and open spaces. That’s so more up-todate play structures that meet current accessibility needs can be put in its place. The city is also applying for federal funding to be used for other accessibility improvements at the park, specifically for things like washrooms and pathways. “Vickers does have a permanent structure building currently on-site, but it is somewhat dated; the washrooms were built prior to having to meet accessibility requirements, so we’re working on an application for that,” he says.

If the city’s funding application is successful, the play equipment, pathways, and washroom upgrades would be all done as part of one large project, Halvorsen says, adding that if the money doesn’t come through, municipal funding will still ensure the playground gets replaced. The current play structure dates back to the early 2000s, he says, while the washroom building likely dates back to around the 1940s. There is currently an accessible portable washroom in the park, “but if we have the opportunity to upgrade the permanent facilities, that would be [a] much better solution,” Halvorsen adds. The work on that front would likely involve tearing down the existing structure and replacing it.

More modern playground equipment, Halvorsen says, doesn’t have sand as a ground cover (which isn’t accessible), and typically new playgrounds have more of an engineered mulch-like base. However, Halvorsen says the Vickers site will instead utilize a rubberized ground surface. Some more historical parts of the playground—like the turtle— will remain.

Other planned work at the park falls outside of the scope of improving accessibility, and includes reorganizing the flower beds and planting more perennials to help reduce maintenance (annuals have to be planted each year). Beds on the perimeter of the park are slated to be decommissioned—Halvorsen says they don’t really fall in line with the park’s original planting plan—and circular beds that used to be more in the middle of the park are to be recreated.

“We have some options where we can eliminate some of these perimeter annual beds, but then recreate some of the interior circular beds,” he says. “So that’s kind of the direction we’re heading in.”