Why GFL Memorial Gardens is a little safer tonight

A $293,000 security upgrade on the southeast and southwest exterior stairwells at GFL Memorial Gardens is almost finished.

"That project is now 95 per cent complete," Brent Lamming, the city's director of community services, told a meeting of the parks and recreation advisory committee this past week.

The two stairwells were closed in "to help prevent loitering and activities in that space, to make it a safer space," Lamming said.

Under a contract awarded to S&T Electrical Contractors Inc., the work has locked doors to fully close off the two corner staircases that until now had been only partially enclosed.

It's no longer possible for people to sleep in or hang around those stairwells.

The project was approved by city councillors in February.

Another stairwell, on the east end of the building, has so far not been closed.

In August, Sault Ste. Marie police confirmed a person had died after being found unresponsive in that area.

The new locked doors will prevent people from loitering around the stairwells on the south end of the arena — but not the east-end stairwell, where the person was found unresponsive.

"This staircase area serves as a crucial emergency exit for the middle of the facility and has a corresponding exit on the other side of the building," Tessa Vecchio, corporate communications officer for the City of Sault Ste. Marie, told SooToday at the time of the summer fatality.

"Since these areas remain unenclosed and exposed to weather elements, they are not included in the project," Vecchio said.