The City of Sarnia has hired a new fencing company to assist in their attempts to reclaim recreational space at Rainbow Park.
From August 31 to September 30, expenses at the park totaled $119,767.30, with fencing costs amounting to $3,842.81—approximately three percent of the total expenses. The original fence was installed in June to separate the playground from the encampment and maintain its use as a recreational amenity. The city is additionally blocking off vacated areas between tents with fencing.
According to Steve Henschel, Manager of Communications for Sarnia, cost was not a driving factor. He explains that the switch to a new fencing company allows for better coordination with the city’s property restoration contractor.
"We are working to adjust the fence when an area of the park is vacated to reclaim it for use as a recreational space," Henschel told The Journal. He added that the new fencing will enable faster adjustments as parts of the park are cleaned up or vacated.
On September 9, 2024, city council approved a motion introduced by Coun. Chrissy McRoberts to adopt new encampment protocols. These included banning fires, ensuring tents are at least ten feet apart, prohibiting independent fences around tents, restricting new people from joining the encampment, and barring those who leave the area from returning.
“What they're doing is as tents move or as the city comes in and says it's abandoned, even though it's not, they're going to move the tent from along this fence and move the fence closer to the next tent... to prevent new setup of tents in that spot,” says Crystal Heimbecker, a woman the Journal spoke to at Rainbow Park.
Correction: In an earlier version of this article, we stated that Crystal Heimbecker was a resident of Rainbow Park. We have since learned this was inaccurate. We spoke with Crystal Heimbecker at Rainbow Park, but they are not a resident.