Lake Cowichan’s new Renfrew Town Square has suffered another delay and will now not be officially open until October.
Nevertheless the town is hoping it will be no later than then with a possible Halloween grand opening being thrown out there.
That idea was suggested by Coun. Bob Day at last week’s Parks, Recreation and Culture Committee meeting at the town hall, where superintendent Nagi Rizk explained the reason for the delay.
“The town square is on hold for a couple of weeks,” said Rizk. “We still have two major items to come including street lights. Lights for the seating area have also been delayed. The square is still not under warranty to the town so if any damage comes about it will still be up to the contractor to repair. Hopefully next week we will see some movement on the light front and the project will be finished by mid-October.”
Rizk also confirmed that there is a deficiency with the concrete pad at the site and that has not yet been complete either.
Rizk and the public works team is hoping to scrape the nearby parking lot sometime this fall.
Day also suggested fresh rock be put at the nearby sidewalk as “it is quite the mud pit there right now.”
“I think we could do the grand opening without the roof structure in place. Perhaps Halloween would be a good date? It could be a Halloween event as the kids could wear costumes and we could do hot dogs and music. That way, it’d be more than just whipping down a sign.”
Mayor Ross Forrest was content with a projected Halloween opening date.
“Halloween sounds fine as it gives a good opportunity for the project to be complete by then,” said the mayor. “September is a bad month and is everybody has lots of things going on and we are busy with UBCM.”
Rizk also stated if would need a significant period of notice for the opening of the town square “so there is no hazards or issues.”
“We’ll toss that idea around for the next week and talk about it at our next weekend at some point on the agenda,” said Day.
