Officials on City Council, including Mayor Charlie Clark, and Saskatoon Public School Board trustees have been invited to tour Optimist Park this weekend, by concerned residents.

Murray Gross, a West Industrial resident says concern stems from a plan the could see the school board build a school at the park and remove two square blocks of green space.  He is concerned that dozens if not hundreds of trees will be bulldozed in a neighbourhood, that is under served by parks already, based off of the City of Saskatoon’s own analysis.

Gross says the just over seven acre park is approximately 100 years old and has around 200 mature trees.  Within the park numerous recreational activities like a basketball court, toboggan hill and a hockey rink exist.  Gross suggests people use the park twelve months out of the year.

He hopes on Saturday the officials invited will see that Optimist Park has value to the community and is well used by the community.  Gross hopes City Council will say no to the school boards plans to build a school there and encourages them to look at other options.

The Saskatoon Public School Division is looking at Optimist Park as a future location for a consolidated school.  A new centralized school would combine students from Princess Alexandra, King George and Pleasant Hill schools.  The City Centre School projected cost is $29-million and would house between 500 to 600 students from Kindergarten to Grade 8. It’s estimated the school could open either in the fall of 2024 or 2025.