The back road into Canoe isn’t likely to be repaired in the near future, if at all.
At the Nov. 20 Salmon Arm Chamber of Commerce lunch, Rob Niewenhuizen, the city’s director of engineering and public works, was asked what’s going to happen with the steep portion of Canoe Beach Drive NE that heads up to meet Lakeshore.
He said it’s a forest road that the city is required to close during the winter because of stability issues.
Because the city has so many priorities, it is slowly falling down the list, he said.
“The best way to deal with that back road is to keep it closed during the winter months, open it up when it’s dry. The whole side of that mountain is just slowly sliding.”
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At some point the city will either have to fix it, which will cost a lot of money, he said, or abandon it.
The road to Captain’s Cove will be maintained, however.
“There’s a design for an alternate road and the city is negotiating with property owners there,” he explained. That’s a long term – medium term project we’re planning. That again will cost a lot of money. We have set up reserves to start that.”
Asked about Canoe Beach, Niewenhuizen said the city continues to look at different options.
“The thing is, a lot of these projects are funded by general revenue and we only have so much. We have to maintain so much other infrastructure… so sometimes we don’t always get the fun stuff funded; we have to get the necessities funded.”
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