District of Mission not renewing contract with Mission Heritage Association

The District of Mission will not be renewing its contract with the Mission Heritage Association for the upkeep of Heritage Park.

The contract runs out at the end of this year, and mayor Randy Hawes says the plan is to have something else in place by then.

“We’re looking at broadening the structure to be more like a parks board, or something along those lines that would look at all of the parks. We’ve grown to the point that having a separate organization to look after one park just doesn’t make sense to us.”

Hawes says in addition starting May 1st the District will take over building construction in the park.

“There are a number of buildings on the site that are not finished.They’ve started the buildings but they have no ability to finish them, no financial ability. They’ll remain in their unfinished state probably for years, and we don’t want that to happen.”

Hawes says fundraising efforts and other work on the observatory has been suspended for now.

He says the proposal was approved by previous council without any consultation with the public and without a business plan, and says the whole project needs to be properly evaluated.