Residents were eager to share their feedback on recreation in the MD of Bonnyville.
In order to know what is wanted for a recreation park in the area, the municipality hosted an open house at Shaw House on Monday, March 4.
“With something in this scope, there’s been an outcry from the user groups that there’s a shortage of this kind of thing,” expressed Chris McCord, director of parks, recreation, and culture for the MD. “Especially when you compare it to what other municipalities have. But, I also think that... taxpayers who are maybe not in favour of this are also going to want to get their (opinion) out, which is perfect because we want to hear from everybody.”
During their recreation needs assessment, the MD included the possibility of a recreation park and decided to move ahead with it after receiving positive feedback.
Attendees could mark features they thought were important to include, such as playgrounds, sports fields, and outdoor work out equipment. They were also encouraged to offer their own suggestions and their reason behind why they wanted to see it incorporated.
Resident Richard Wurst suggested the MD utilize land in town to offer additional components during the summer and winter, such as a fishing pond and an outdoor skating trail.
“Recreation is great for the community, and council sounds like they want to focus and expand recreational opportunities in the region,” he said.
Due to the project being in the early stages, a rough plan wasn’t part of the open house. McCord noted they wanted it to be an “open book” for comments to see what residents wish to include and where they would like to see it located.
Robert Parks, a partner with RC Strategies+ PERC, the Edmonton-based recreation company conducting the study, said there were some preliminary plans worked out but they were open to see what residents would suggest.
“The idea was we’ve got a park that we’re looking at doing a design for, and we want to find out what needs to be in that park,” he said, adding a survey will also allow them to round up more information in the coming weeks.
Included in the plan will be comparing the MD to other like-sized municipalities.
“They’ll look at similar-sized municipalities, and compare what they have to what we have or don’t have,” detailed McCord.
Reeve Greg Sawchuk believes the feedback is crucial moving ahead with the plan.
“The initial concept of what this park was going to look like was huge. This will help us focus it down, and maybe even look in different directions.”
Parks agreed.
“Any of these kinds of developments are done through the municipality through tax dollars, and it’s all done to provide services to residents. If you don’t know what the residents want, then we’re having a problem in terms of how we’re doing our work as a municipality and us as a firm that helps municipalities do that.”
Once all the information from the open house and survey are collected, council will review it before hosting another event in May, to allow residents to make comments and examine the plans.
