Freelton, Ont., residents fight to keep lights on at community park

Emily Shewchuk is one of many softball players who use the baseball diamond at Freelton Community Park. Now she’s worried the teams who call this park home won’t have a place to play anymore.

“All our games are here,” she said.

“We just basically like the area we play at, so it’s the most important.”

“Growing up in the community, my mom played ball here,” said Anthony Hunter, a softball coach and Freelton resident.

“My dad was an umpire here. I’ve been a coach since my kids started playing. I play here, my wife plays here. So it means quite a lot to have this park going.”

The City says it’s planning on taking down the lights at the baseball diamond and the tennis court in December due to safety concerns. There is no plan to replace the lights.

“We had a lighting order done in 2021 in which [the light poles] were identified to be reaching end of life capacity,” City of Hamilton park manager Rory Doucette says.

“We’ve had a couple of other failures recently at some other parks in the city where some poles have come down on high winds. That’s just what we’re trying to avoid here.”

The City says it’s not just Freelton — a few other parks will also face the same fate. 

“There’s a lot of assets in the city with this limited funding,” Doucette said.

“So we have to prioritize and make decisions based on that to move forward with certain projects and to delay others and see funding alternatively through other means when it’s available.”

The councillor for the area says there’s a severe backlog in all of the city’s recreation assets, and that every time the parks budget is passed, there’s not enough funding to meet all the needs of Hamilton city parks.

Along with other Flamborough councillors, Alex Wilson is trying to look for ways to make the replacements sooner.

“How can we identify what these needs are within the Flamborough area,” Wilson said.

“And look at what discretionary dollars we have either through cell phone towers or via the slot reserve, and see what options are able to pull funding forward to meet the need.”

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