By Thia James

Council has political will to finish Rotary Trail: Mayor

Sep 27, 2013 | 7:16 AM

Prince Albert’s Rotary Trail announced it received significant donations from two community groups on Thursday at a media event where the city’s mayor revealed a couple changes to City Hall’s management of the project.

The Rotary Club presented the Prince Albert Multi-Use Recreational Trail committee with a cheque for $28,000. The funds were raised earlier in the year at the club’s annual LobsterFest event. The committee also received a $10,000 donation from the Summit Run.

At the cheque presentation event, Mayor Greg Dionne told the small crowd gathered at the Prince Albert Tourism Information centre that he is now the chief negotiator for the trail and the responsibility for the Rotary Trail at City Hall has been moved out of the community services department to public works.

As well, he said the Rotary Trail will be front and centre in the 2014 budget cycle.

“You’re going to see the trail grow over the next four years during our term. Because we do have the political will to get the trail done and around our city, and so I’ve got to thank my colleagues on council, because without their support, that would not happen,” he said.

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Moreover, after the event, the mayor indicated that more money would go towards the Rotary Trail. “At budget time, that’s when we look at it. And this year again, we’ll put more money into the Rotary Trail,” he said and added that it’s something the community wants to see.

During his speech, he said there are still some hurdles, but council did break some protocol rules, and revealed his new role with the trail. “When they mayor shows up and says ‘it’s going by your place, here it goes,’ it gives it just sort of a different woomph, than some of the difficulties we’ve had in the past.”

The public works department is now overseeing the project for the city because of the asphalt involved and the need for the department’s engineers, Dionne said.

“So, you will see us again, making a commitment, to the Rotary Trail.”

The trail has received major infusions of cash in 2013, from the city, as well as independent organizations. City worker s have donated their time to working on constructing unfinished sections of the trail. B&B Asphalt has donated $50,000 towards its completion and two years of free maintenance for the trail.

Also, $200,000 from a grant given to the City of Prince Albert in February, was put towards the Rotary Trail earlier this year. In 2009, the Northern Lights Community Development Corporation agreed to a multi-year donation with the city. There were also some funds carried over from the previous year.

All of this year’s funding put together will help push the trail forward, the trail’s committee chair Dave Fischl said after the event. “So, for us … we’re hoping to get close to, out to the soccer centre [Alfred Jenkins Field House]. And then, once we get there, it’s just a matter of getting down towards the … west end of the city.”

At the same time, the end price tag of the trail is not yet known. Fischl said in excess of the $1.5 million total that was projected 12 years ago has been spent, and there is still more of the trail that needs to be built. Seventeen out of the 23 kilometres planned for the Rotary Trail have already been completed.

There have also been some obstacles in the way of the trail’s completion that are not related to finances. One such hurdle is new construction, Fischl said. “If you’re going through a new development area, where exactly are you going to put that trail, and how’s that going to fit in with the development, and working with the developer on where the trail is going to work.”

When it comes to how nearby business and home owners feel about the trail’s path being so close to them, Fischl said they have been apprehensive before the trail is built in their area, and are unsure about what will happen when it’s built.

But after the trail is built, things change.

“We found that once the trail gets past their place and goes around, and they see the people that are out there, they find it … that it’s something that they really want to have,” said Fischl.

The mayor also pointed to the “good traffic” that the trail brings to neighbourhoods that are nearby. “It’s very good people that are using the trail. It’s right from the young to the seniors,” Dionne said. As chief negotiator, he said he thinks it’s his job to give people information. “Once you give the information what the trail’s about, what the purpose is, who’s using it, I’ve had no resistance.”

A couple of businesses that will be adjacent to the trail, have been more than just receptive to the Rotary Trail. They’ve contributed to its construction.

For example, Canadian Tire is funding the construction of the section of the trail that will be built in front of the store, Dionne said. Home Hardware is also funding the section in front of its store.

“That’s going to be a very unique part of the trail. Because they actually wanted to upgrade the trail. And that’s actually going to be interlocking brick[s]. And they have one of their suppliers getting us the interlocking brick[s],” he said.

“So, it’s those kinds of partnerships in our community that excites us.”

tjames@panow.com

On Twitter: @thiajames