Outdoor exercise installation for Twin Rivers Park?
By Kyra Hoggan
Two Castlegar rotary clubs are determined to take away residents’ lingering excuses for not exercising by promoting a project that would see outdoor exercise equipment installed at Twin Rivers Park.
“It’d be available 24/7, so people couldn’t say their schedule prevents them,” said Fred Hughes, offering a tongue-in-cheek rationale for the project to city council at its regular meeting Monday night. “We’d like to help the city develop what we feel is currently an underutilized amenity, namely Twin Rivers Park.”
He said similar exercise equipment is in use in communities around the world – including Nelson and Trail, where the machines have garnered popular approval and plenty of use. He also said the rugged equipment is designed to withstand the elements, while boasting options to make it accessible for people with disabilities.
“There’s something for every age group, and every fitness and ability level,” he said, adding an increase in park traffic will also translate to a decrease in vandalism and nuisance crime in the area.
Ron Armbruster then took over the presentation to discuss the fiscal elements of the project, which he said will likely come with a price tag of around $40,000 to $50,000 including installation.
He said the Sunrise Rotary Club is ante-ing up $8,000 and the Castlegar Rotary Club another $7,500, with two individual rotary members committing $1,000 each. He also said there would be funding forthcoming from a participaction grant, meaning, “We’re already almost halfway there.”
He said the rotary clubs would probably, at some point, be seeking some financial assistance from the city as well as in-kind donations of staff time, but all they wanted Monday night was a letter promising council’s support of the concept; a letter which would assist organizers in applying for funding, both from other levels of gopvernment and from the business community.
He also said organizers had also considered Kinsmen and Kinnaird Parks, but settled on Twin Rivers as the ideal under-utilized venue for the installation.
Council voted unanimously to provide the letter of support.
“It seems like a really great project,” said Mayor Lawrence Chernoff.
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