Council approves parking fee and learns of new equipment at Mary Anne Sills Park for OFSAA

By Katie Perry

BELLEVILLE— Belleville city council approved a parking fee for the Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations track and field meet this June and heard about new equipment coming to the Mary Anne Sills Park.

The park will have 85 thousand dollars worth of new track and field equipment for the meet because of a grant from the John and Bernice Parrott Foundation. This equipment will stay at the park after OFSAA track and field is over according to Tim Larry, the director of operations for OFSAA track and field.

Some of the equipment that Mary Anne Sills will be getting are steeple chase barriers, lane markers, new hurdles and a steeple chase barrier. The equipment will be newer and safer for future meets he said.

But equipment is not the only thing that is new. Some of the awards given out at the end of the competition will be given out by local OFSAA winners according to Larry. “We have a number of former OFSAA champions from the area who have been contacted to present awards for various events, ideally in the ones that they won their awards in.”

Belleville city council heard a deputation on Monday night from Larry regarding parking in the Mary Anne Sills area and voted to allow a five dollar charge for parking from June 1-3 while the OFSAA track and field meet is happening.

“What we would like to do is to have no street parking in that area,” Larry said “because we don’t want to unnecessarily impact the residents of that area.”

To combat the parking problem, Larry said they have made several parking lots open during the event for spectators to leave their cars.

Red lines show the streets spectators are asked not to park on. There are parking locations detailed in green available at Sir Mackenzie Bowell Park, Rotary Park, Hastings Bible Church, Church of Latter Day Saints, Centennial Secondary School, and the bus parking at the Quinte Exhibition.

The five dollar cost for parking will go towards the operating budget to hold the OFSAA meet, and any profits will be made into donations to various community groups to thank them for their help and to the purchase of equipment for OFSAA track and field according to Larry.