Benches, yanked amid homeless concerns, back in Woodstock’s downtown

Benches are returning to downtown Woodstock—more than a year after they were yanked.

In a narrow vote, Woodstock city council gave the green light for the latest change in direction.

After considering hundreds of comments from Woodstock residents, agencies and businesses, city politicians voted 4-3 Thursday to reinstall the benches in Museum Square immediately and the remaining benches and picnic tables in the downtown in the spring.

The previous council voted in late 2021 to remove the benches and increase security due to safety concerns stemming from homeless people and drug users congregating in and around the square. That move drew criticism from advocates for the homeless and some community members, eventually leading politicians to direct staff to ask the public to weigh in on the issue.

Woodstock Mayor Jerry Acchione and rookie councilors Kate Leatherbarrow, Liz Wismer-Van Meer and Bernia Wheaton voted in favor of reinstating the benches.

“I feel good with the results. It was a process,” Leatherbarrow, who brought the motion forward last November to reinstall the benches, said after the meeting.

“It was very visible to me that seating in the square was a separate conversation (from) how we plan to fight societal issues that are impacting many in our community,” she said, referring to the public input gathered from the city’s online survey released last month.

Councilors Deb Tait, Connie Lauder and Mark Schadenberg voted against the motion, with some noting they don’t support having benches in the square but favor having them in other parts of downtown.

“It’s unfortunate that the narrative was directed at the homeless because that’s not what it was for,” Tait told her colleagues when explaining why she wouldn’t support it.

“It’s pretty clear the police and numerous other experts suggest not putting them back at this time, as we still haven’t addressed what the real issue is,” she said.

More than 1,500 people responded to the city’s online survey, and nearly three-quarters expressed support for returning the benches, council heard in a presentation from city staff Thursday.

Several agencies and stakeholders, including Woodstock police, the area school board the Canadian Mental Health Association and Operation Sharing, which operates a shelter, also submitted comments.

Organizations, business owners and residents largely indicated in the survey they wanted to see increased support and services for people experiencing homelessness and those struggling with mental health and substance abuse. They also expressed a desire to see steps taken to make the city’s downtown safer and cleaner.

During Thursday’s discussion, Tait reminded her colleagues why the last council voted to pull the benches in 2021. She cited the most recent input from city staff and a letter to council from police Chief Rod Wilkinson that noted officers responded to 124 calls in Museum Square and the area in 2021 compared to 44 calls last year.

But she and Leatherbarrow clashed when Tait asked city staff if someone would monitor activity in the square once the benches return to determine if the same issues would arise, including incidents involving needles and property damage.

Leatherbarrow pushed back, arguing that the discussion was irrelevant to the motion at hand.

“I don’t see any of the language referring to monitoring or safety,” she said.

Staff, in response, said the city wouldn’t do anything differently.

“Whether the benches are there are not, we have security guards” who maintain activity reports, said David Creery, the city’s top administrator.

Politicians meet in March to begin creating a 20-year strategic plan and Leatherbarrow said, “I plan on taking the consultation about downtown that turned into supporting our vulnerable population and applying it at that strategic planning workshop.”

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