Bylaw complaints, interactions up, but no wild park scenes in Newmarket

Speeding cyclists on walking paths are growing concern

Yorkregion.com
May 26, 2020
John Cudmore

Folks may have been misbehaving with all that nice weather over the weekend in Toronto, but not so in Newmarket.

When people were shown by various media outlets flocking to Trinity Bellwoods Park in the city for a long-anticipated summerlike day of sun and heat, public reaction was quick and scathing.

According to the Town of Newmarket, there was nothing remotely close to that kind of COVID-19 daring activity in its backyard during the week from May 18 to 24, despite the declaration on May 22 that limited use of facilities, such as tennis courts and the municipality's dog park, would be open to public use.

"There was a very large spike in parks complaints this week," Flynn Scott, Newmarket’s manager for regulatory services, said, pointing to 66 incidents compared to 18 and eight the previous two weeks. “But, overall, we had no issues like Toronto saw in parks. Everyone (for the most part) was social distancing and not in larger groups.”

Newmarket has not yet announced if further easing of restrictions is expected in the next few days.

In fact, zero tickets were doled out in 271 park patrols and 2,096 interactions with citizens.

Not surprisingly, weekly interactions numbers are on the uptick after totals of 1,478 for May 11 to 17 and 1,106 the week prior.

There were 82 warnings issued through public education and voluntary compliance, up from 54 a week earlier, but down from the 93 for the week of May 4 to 10.

Of note, a growing concern is the increasing number of cyclists speeding on trails.

Meanwhile, two violations tickets and three written warnings were issued relating to Main Street’s 30-minute parking regulations.