Contentious Tilton basketball court to become a park

By Olivia Bradbury, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter The Shoreline

A run-down basketball court in Tilton that had caused some qualms for residents in the area will be turned into a municipal park, Spaniard’s Bay council has decided.

Councillor Darlene Stamp introduced the motion last week during the Town’s regular public council meeting.

Council had discussed the old Tilton basketball court in previous meetings and were monitoring activity there to help it figure out its best course of action.

The old courts had developed a reputation as a teenage hangout with claims from some people that fires were being started there. At council’s August 13 meeting, a Tilton resident aired his complaints about the Town’s plan to make it easier for the public to access the site, and voiced disagreement over any notion to renovate the court.

But at last week’s meeting, Stamp explained that Councillor Eric Jewer had come up with the idea of making the courts into a park and endorsed it as a good plan. The dimensions of the land the basketball courts occupy is approximately 360 feet wide by 800 feet long. Stamp suggested council sell two building lots from it —about 100 by 100 feet each — to neighbours of the courts and use the money to develop a park on the remaining property. She said developing the area in this way would solve residents’ safety concerns about fires and other hazards.

Stamp said council can discuss later what kind of park it will be. They will need to allot 50 feet for a right-of-way to get to the area, and that will leave them with an area about 110 feet wide for a park. She then made a motion to start rezoning the lots to sell with the intention of the funds going towards the development of a municipal park. Jewer seconded the motion, and it was passed unanimously.