Mayor Charlie Clark opened up about some of the issues surrounding Saskatoon’s downtown Lighthouse Tuesday morning.

On Friday, Saskatoon accountant Greg Keller, along with four others, was chased down 20th Street by a man wielding a hatchet. The incident was broken down on Gormley Live Monday morning by Keller.

Clark told Loucks that they are looking into adding security and working with the provincial government to secure funding for that.

“Police are the most expensive form of security to have there. We need to have something that is a more ongoing presence,” he said.

Clark didn’t close the door on the idea of working with those in the community to add to the services.

“The Lighthouse has said they have to fundraise if they want to get that security, I want to get together with community partners and say ‘let’s just figure this out, get some security in place.'”

The idea was also raised to expand the Lighthouse throughout the community into satellite bases, but Clark said some challenges remain.

“Where do you move even some of what’s going on at the Lighthouse? And, how do you make sure that it won’t have a ripple effect on other neighbourhoods? And that’s an ongoing, active conversation that the Lighthouse has been involved in,” he said.

“They have said they recognize they have too much concentration of programs and services in one spot, and that there’s room to improve the model, and potentially create satellite programs.”

Clark said the city wants the downtown to be safe, and a place where more people live.

“We have this tension that we’re faced with in this situation that can be very unnerving for people,” he said. “It’s a very challenging situation, and I take it very seriously. We are taking some important steps to address it.”