New beach volleyball courts and a disk golf course will be installed in Sarnia this year.
City council has approved the installation of beach volleyball courts in the area of the bandshell and beach pavilion at Canatara Park.
Community Services General Manager Stacey Forfar explained the reasoning for that location.
"There are some challenges with it actually being located on the beach," said Forfar. "There's been significant beach loss over the years and beach volleyball is one of those activities where there's lots of stuff moving around, lots of stuff flying around. Generally speaking it's actually good practice to move them inland a little bit."
She said it keeps the court isolated and protects the beach.
"It won't interrupt the beach pavilion (either). We're looking at a potential opportunity in and around that beach bandshell. There are some challenges with the bandshell use. We're trying to protect passive uses in and around that area and see if we can use that beach bandshell in the future in terms of additional programming."
Sarnia council also approved the installation of a disc golf course in Centennial Park.
"There's shorter holes, there's longer holes, there's ones that are meant to go around features," Forfar said. "You can make (the course) as short and cramped as you like or draw it out as long as you like. We're looking around some of those features, some of the tree features, the berm features, in and around some of those locations to make it a bit interesting."
Councillor Terry Burrell, who served as acting mayor of the meeting, questioned if the depth to install the needed equipment was acceptable following the park's multi-million remediation.
"We certainly did consult with colleagues and in terms of the depths it isn't anticipated that it would go lower than three to four feet," Forfar said. "It's more of a pad and a post for construction and it's deemed to be ok in that area."
Use of the amenities will be free this summer and the one year pilot will be reviewed afterward to determine if fees should be required in 2023.
Mayor Mike Bradley and councillors Dave Boushy and Bill Dennis were absent from Monday's regular meeting.
