During a recent ad hoc committee meeting, Mayor Peter Chirico made a request of Brent Kalinowski, the City of North Bay's Community Safety and Well-Being planner and strategist as they discussed the redeployment of security and outreach with the cooler months upon us.
See related: Downtown outreach/security pilot deemed a success, extended
Mayor Chirico asked Kalinowski during a recent meeting of the Community Safety and Well-Being ad hoc committee, "On security and outreach, has there been a conversation with CMHA," regarding the part of Main Street West from Fraser Street running toward Ferguson Street?
"Most afternoons, it becomes the CMHA's waiting room," Chirico continued. "They are out on the sidewalk. The sidewalk is blocked or people will not provide the sidewalk. I've witnessed two or three times, just in the past couple of weeks, people changing right there on the sidewalk.
"They are being provided clothing from the CMHA and they're changing on the streets and there are families going by. I hope that conversation will be had with CMHA that Main Street isn't their waiting room."
Kalinowski responded to Mayor Chirico, stating some casual conversations about the situation had taken place. "I'll revisit it. I know that for our outreach, that is one of the spots they attend a lot."
It is Chirico's understanding that the CMHA staff goes outside to interact with clients while they congregate on the sidewalk instead of waiting inside.
"I'm hoping something can be done because, at that end of the street, everyone crosses to the other side of the street because it becomes unpassable."
During his report to the committee, Kalinowski noted with the change in weather, fewer resources will be necessary at summertime amenities and patrols will increase from the downtown core, up Cassells Street toward the Gathering Place, with the possibility to shift the patrols to Fraser Street where the new warming centre will open Nov. 1.
See also: Warming centre to open in new location — and for whole season
It was obviously a subject worth broaching for Chirico but by his own admission, the committee is pleased by the initial results of the City of North Bay's Outreach Security Teams Pilot. The committee later granted an extension to the program through January 2024 in an attempt to prevent gaps in services around the holidays.
"It's working, it's as simple as that," said Chirico about the pilot program during that same meeting.
Coun. Mark King, also an ad hoc committee member noted, "We've had some pretty good results here. It's paying dividends in the downtown core. We should extend it, without question."
See: Council approves $150K downtown security and outreach pilot
The program was poised to expire at the end of October before this past week's extension. With just over half of the original $150,000 upset budget spent, the remainder will be available to the program.
Kalinowski has been reporting back to the committee with his ongoing findings from data the team has gleaned by reviewing incident reports, including police calls for service, positive social connections to resources, and public feedback to gauge the qualitative impact. The outreach/security teams have also been documenting incidents for review.