Elliott Park shut down for summer

By John Miner

Elliott Park in Exeter with its RV sewage dumping facility and water refilling station will be closed for the season out of traffic safety concerns during Main Street construction.

Don Giberson, South Huron infrastructure and development general manager, told South Huron council the closure of the park was recommended because of the heavy volume of traffic that will be diverted from Main Street onto Church and William Streets during part of the construction.

The short section of William Street with the dumping facility and water refilling station will also be shut down.

“It is a safety concern for the staff,” he said.

There are other options for RV owners, including a publicly owned dumping facility in Clinton and private RV waste removal companies, Giberson said.

Coun. Ted Oke questioned whether the section of William Street with the dumping station could remain open, allowing people to back their RVs down the street. Giberson said the traffic volume would make that manoeuvre unsafe.

The plan for reconstruction of Main Street South from the Ausable River to Victoria Street is scheduled to start in April with storm sewer work downstream of the Ausable River bridge in the east end of Elliott Park.

Full road closure at Main and Church Streets is scheduled for one week starting on April 13.

When Main Street is reopened, the plan is to detour southbound traffic to Church and William Streets. A single lane of northbound traffic will be shifted to the east side of Main Street until about mid-summer.

When the west side of Main Street is finished, one lane of traffic southbound will shift to the west side of the road and northbound traffic will be detoured to Andrew Street until November.

Questioned about traffic being detoured near the Exeter public pool on Andrew Street, Jeff Wolfe, transportation services manager, said the plan is to avoid traffic in that area when the pool is open. After the pool season is over the intent is to detour some traffic through that area.

“It is something we can keep an eye on,” Wolfe said.

In a presentation to council, Exeter BIA manager Caroline Hill said the Main Street construction will impact foot traffic and create accessibility issues.

Encouraging people to continue visiting Main Street will be a challenge.

“These major projects impact overall sales, increase costs at times and can be disruptive to day-to-day business,” Hill said.

To mitigate the situation for businesses, the BIA plans social media blasts that businesses are open and how to get to businesses and parking.

Hill said the BIA will continue events such as Touch a Truck, Sidewalk Sale and Ladies Night to draw traffic to the core and area affected.