By Ian Holmes

Last caretaker standing: Neck Point cabin anchors popular park

Nov 12, 2018 | 4:58 PM

NANAIMO — Park caretaker is a title nobody else in Nanaimo besides Rob Kolompar can claim.

He and his wife Jane have lived in the only structure at Neck Point since 2005 and served as ambassadors of the park since 2009, when the City bought 10 acres of private property. The purchase solidified public ownership of the popular 36-acre waterfront park, and the Kolompars agreed to stay.

Al Britton, the City’s manager of parks operations, said the extra sets of eyes and ears for the well-used park provides good value to the City and public at large.

“He (Rob) looks after opening and closing the gates, which we would normally pay staff or a contractor to do. There is a benefit to all of that which is a cost benefit to the City.”

Britton said other duties the Kolompars provide include answering questions from park guests, collecting garbage, and cleaning graffiti and the portable washroom. The Kolompars aren’t City employees and don’t receive a salary, but are given free rent in exchange for their caretaker roles, according to Britton.

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He said the cabin at Neck Point is a memory of a time when 20-to-30 summer cabins sprung up along the beach beginning in the 1950s.

“It gives somewhat of an idea what the cabins would have looked like, not all of the cabins were even as elaborate as that one, they looked a lot like shack island,” Britton said.

Rob Kolompar recently invited NanaimoNewsNOW into the quaint cabin he, his wife and their dog share. He said it’s not a bad gig living in paradise, while enjoying the conveniences a city like Nanaimo has to offer.

“It’s beautiful, just fantastic,” Kolompar said. “We feel very fortunate living here, many people have to deal with traffic going by and stuff like that. We don’t have that.”

“People who visit this park are very kind, we’re lucky that way,” Kolompar said from his kitchen table on a sunny late afternoon.

The City anticipated the caretaker model will remain at Neck Point Park as long as the cabin is in good working order.

Britton said the City’s only other caretaker looked after Westwood Lake Park, which lasted between about 2008 and 2016.

“We went through five or six different people in that role (at Westwood Lake), you need the right person to make it work for everybody,” Britton said.

ian@nanaimonewsnow.com

On Twitter: @reporterholmes