CHARLOTTETOWN, P.E.I. — For the second summer in a row, the Charlottetown Event Grounds is being used as a temporary area for gravel.
It’s the same story as last year — large piles of gravel on the waterfront side sit there because there is essentially nowhere else to put it, says the general manager of the Charlottetown Area Development Corporation (CADC), which owns the event grounds.
“It’s one of those perfect storms,’’ said Ron Waite. “(With) construction on the wharf expansion (and the) huge demand in terms of road construction activities and just out of desperation they called us.’’
Waite is talking about the Charlottetown Harbour Authority, which he said had to deal with a huge barge load of gravel coming in and no place to store it.
The same issue occurred last year. Gravel was piled at the event grounds for use on the Charlottetown Airport and Cornwall bypass projects.
“It will be very short-term storage. We’re just trying to provide some short-term relief for the harbour authority in terms of storage.’’
Ron Waite
It’s a case where the gravel comes in quickly, and the harbour authority doesn’t have as much space as it used to to store it.
Waite emphasized it’s a temporary situation.
“It will be very short-term storage,’’ Waite said, adding that the cleanup was supposed to have started on Tuesday. “We’re just trying to provide some short-term relief for the harbour authority in terms of storage.’’
Corryn Clemence, business development manager for the harbour authority, echoed Waite’s remarks.
“Due to a busy construction season, the event grounds were used as a temporary storage,’’ Clemence said.
Waite acknowledged that he’s concerned this has now happened two years in a row. The grounds are booked for a big truck show later this month so he said things have to be cleaned up by then.
“At the behest of the harbour authority we reluctantly went and said, 'We’ll help you out’ because they just had no place else to go.’’
The matter was raised during city council’s regular public monthly meeting on Monday.
Coun. Mitchell Tweel said he’s disappointed to see events like the Cavendish Beach Music Festival succeed year after year when the event grounds almost always sits empty.
“We can’t host any major events in the city (at the event grounds),’’ Tweel said. “It’s absolutely deplorable.’’
Tweel wants the city to reach out to the province about creating an annual show for the event grounds that parallels what takes place on the north shore.
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