Norfolk councilors will consider hiring security at Talbot Gardens after several incidents involving drug use were recently reported at the Simcoe arena.
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Coun. Alan Duthie received support for his motion at a council-in-committee meeting on Tuesday calling for staff to contact paid security as an “immediate and temporary solution for the winter ice season.”
A report is to come back to councilors at a meeting next week that will include potential hours security will be in place and the associated cost, which is to be covered through the council initiative reserve.
Duthie, who said drug paraphernalia has been found by children in arena washrooms, said urgent action is needed. He read to fellow councilors two emails he received recently describing concerning situations.
One, from a minor hockey parent who is also a police officer, said a male was found passed out in the men’s washroom at Talbot Gardens “exhibiting signs of drug use,” and drug paraphernalia, including a straw, and burnt tin foil with drug residue on it was found on the floor outside the stall.
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The other email was from a mother of three who said she waited just outside the men’s washroom at the arena while her child, who has a disability, went in. A couple minutes later, she said a man stumbled out of the washroom with his belongings prompting her to rush in to check on her child who she found “hiding in a stall.”
The child told his mother a man was “playing dead laying on the floor of the bathroom.”
“He seemed harmless and was perhaps looking for a warm spot, but who knows what could be laying around in there for our kids to get into,” the woman said in her email.
Duthie said “the safety of some of our youngest and most vulnerable residents is in jeopardy.”
“It’s incumbent on us to ensure the safety of (arena) users, staff and community members.”
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Duthie’s motion asks for security to be put in place on an immediate, short-term basis and that county staff come back to council in January with a report on how to handle the situation going forward.
Bill Cridland, the county’s general manager of operations, said protocols, including staff training in the safe disposal of drug paraphernalia, were put in place a few years ago but there have been an increasing number of incidents and not enough staff to monitor bathrooms on top of their regular duties.
Cridland said two trespass orders have been issued for people caught doing drugs on the Talbot Gardens property.
Norfolk CAO Al Meneses said council may want to consider a “campus approach” with security guards patrolling not just Talbot Gardens, but other municipal properties. He said there have been similar issues in other buildings, including the county administration building and the library.
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Coun. Adam Veri, who said he doesn’t support putting security at Talbot Gardens, said user groups who rent county facilities should be responsible for providing security services.
“At what point is Norfolk County admitting it’s our responsibility to put security guards in our facilities,” said Veri. “And where does that end?”
Coun. Kim Huffman said the county also has to keep in mind that the community’s homeless population requires the use of public washrooms when they have nowhere else to go.
In his motion, Duthie said growing concerns regarding security and safety at Talbot Gardens and other municipal arenas are “stemming from interactions with unhoused individuals in and around these facilities.”
“These situations highlight the urgent need for compassionate solutions to homelessness, (but) there is also a responsibility to ensure the safety of all arena users.”
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