Bike skills park supported
A BMX track didn’t get the nod but a temporary bike skills park did.
Shelley Desautels, BMX director with the Shuswap Cycling Society, gave a detailed presentation to council Dec. 12, requesting support for a one-year lease for a BMX track at Blackburn Park.
While council expressed appreciation for all her work, they decided that a temporary bike skills park would better match the long-term master plan for the park, and would get cyclists out of the skate park.
Council said if Sicamous has a spot for a sanctioned park ready, as Desautels had mentioned, she should go there because Salmon Arm currently doesn’t.
In the long term, Klahani Park was mentioned as a better possibility than Blackburn.
Trucks take to trail
Trucks are expected to begin travelling the foreshore trail at Salmon Arm Bay next week.
Following a failure in 2012 of the foreshore sewer main that runs between the lake and the railway tracks, a plan to replace the main was created. Stage 1 is now beginning – Appleyard to Raven, and the work will be done by the end of March. Instead of a new main, the city will use a fibreglass lining to repair the existing one. Trucks will enter from the west end of the trail, which will be widened from Christmas Island. Trucks will drive on ‘swamp mats’ around the boardwalk, which protect the land, and they will be used to create islands around manholes.
Local company D. Webb Contracting Ltd. was awarded the $1.5 million contract.
Filling the cracks
A crack on the surface of the east court at the Jackson tennis courts will be getting attention from the city in the spring.
West Martin-Patterson, the Salmon Arm Secondary School tennis coach, requested that the city consider resurfacing the courts in 2017.
City staff told council that it might be possible to do minor repairs when the pickleball courts are put in, because they use the same product.
Staff would also like to talk to the school district regarding their joint use agreement.
New home for festival board
The most recent meeting of the Roots and Blues board was held in SCIP House, the newly renovated building off 5th Avenue SW to be home to festival operations.
“It was a momentous occasion for Roots and Blues,” remarked Coun. Alan Harrison, the city’s rep on the board. “A lot of work has gone into it. SCIP did a lot of work so they have named it SCIP House.”
Harrison said the board has been working on a strategic plan and the budget for the festival.
The annual general meeting of the Salmon Arm Folk Music Society will take place on Tuesday, Jan. 17, 7 p.m. at the Comfort Inn.