The City of Sherbrooke chose the day before the opening of this year’s Lac des Nations Festival to inaugurate the newly-remade concert space for people with reduced mobility at Jacques Cartier Park. Although a fenced-off area reserved for people with special needs already existed next to the old Azimut-nord youth centre building above the hillside used for a concert space at the park, the city invested $68,000 in paving pathways, installing a level concrete platform with galvanized steel guardrails, and rearranging the parking lot, among other modifications aimed at improving the park’s accessibility.
“This is really, really appreciated,” said Réné Junior Gervais of the APHVE, which represents people living in the Eastern Townships who have visual impairments. “It is much easier for us to locate ourselves in a structure like this one. Grass is grass, but a fixed structure gives us a way to orient ourselves. It’s much better.” See full story in the Tuesday, July 16 edition of The Record.