Peter Manchester, president of a Sackville outdoor club, wants an abandoned quarry in the middle of the town to be bought and preserved as a natural park.
The Pickard Quarry is a fenced-off green space surrounding two ponds near the centre of the town. It is owned by Mount Alison University and was once a source of sandstone for buildings across Eastern Canada and the United States.
Manchester said the price tag on the land is $1, and although there is no money for upgrades, the town should pony up.
The university would only say that the asking price is a "nominal fee."
Doesn't need work
"It doesn't need anything right now," Manchester said of the property. "It's as it has been for decades."
Sackville town council had a project planned for the quarry that would have seen the two existing ponds turned into a storm-water retention system. The surrounding green space was to be preserved for use as a park.
The town applied for funding from the Federation of Canadian Municipalities but recently found out it was turned down.
The application was for $1.2 million, and without the funding the future of Pickard Quarry is in limbo.
John Higham, the mayor of Sackville, said he considers the quarry an "unpolished gem," and he would hate to see the town miss out on the opportunity to buy the land.
"But on the other hand, I also understand we're tight on money," he said, pointing to the province's decision to freeze property assessments this year in the wake of the assessments it bungled last year.
"After the assessment debacle here, our budget was down, we had to cut a whole bunch of things, so there are other things I know are important to people right now too," Higham said.
If the town buys the land, it could be held liable if someone gets hurt on the property, but Manchester said in all his years living nearby, he's never known of an ambulance having to come pick anyone up.
"We encourage our kids to play hockey, we encourage them to play football … there are a lot of things more risky than walking through this quarry."
The quarry has gained a reputation in the town as a place for teenagers and university students to meet away from prying eyes. Manchester, who lives steps from the quarry, is aware of the reputation and doesn't think it is deserved any more.
"It's used for ice skating by a lot of community members in the winter time, people come down here for relaxation, a lot of Mount Alison students will gather here whatever purpose, and other (people) regularly walk through here and hang out here."
Wood is stacked on an outcrop of rock, ready for a bonfire. There is the odd plastic bag wrapped around bushes blowing in the wind, and broken glass rests in between cracks of rock.
But the place is also home to birds, lupin is starting to rise from the yellow grass and a small waterfall runs at one end of the pond.
The ponds were created by sandstone mining.
"At one time, the Sackville quarry was regarded as one of the most important producers of building stone in the Maritime provinces," the government of New Brunswick website says.
Stone at Ontario legislature
It said the quarry was active from 1883 to the early 1940s.
In the 1970s, some stone was taken out of the quarry for specific projects on the Mount Allison campus as well as used in the restoration of the Ontario Legislative Building.
In 1979, with residential neighbourhoods growing up around the quarry, community protests led to its permanent closure.
Manchester said he and a group of supporters will be at the next town council meeting on Tuesday evening to request a time to make a presentation at a later meeting.