Centennial Gardens in St. Catharines is riddled with used needles. City staff says it’s well aware of the problem and has someone onsite but one resident has taken on the job of cleaning Centennial park himself.
Within 20 minutes Fred Bowering found 7 needles. He comes to Centennial Gardens nearly everyday to collect them, sometimes by the dozens, he doesn’t want to see anyone get hurt. Last week Fred accidentally got pricked by one of the needles when he was cleaning the park, thankfully he didn’t contract any disease.
City officials say they are well aware that the park is a hot spot for drug users.
“Our parks crews know where the needles are most commonly found and collecting them as they see them. So when their in the park they’re walking through those areas and collecting them as they see them. If there’s a call for needles they would go to the park and pick it up.”
Just around the corner from the park, Positive Living Niagara is encouraging drug users to bring in used needles in exchange for new, clean ones. They’ve also installed a safe disposal box at the park.
