Telkwa now has a Park Master Plan to guide decision-making with respect to future improvements and maintenance of the parks and trails in the village.
The 92-page document prepared by Lazzarin Svisdahl Landscape Architects, Watson Projects and Liliana Dragowski Planning and Community Engagement Services, identifies three main focus areas.
These are: Riverside Park, mobility and connectivity and strategic maintenance and upgrades.
In specific terms, it notes that Riverside Park is a distinguishing feature of the village, but not cohesive and could benefit from a redesign to form a comprehensive linear network along the river.
It further identifies taking advantage of the dike project to further improvements to the park such as reworking the boat launch area. In fact, Telkwa has just received a $26,674 grant from B.C.’s Community Economic Recovery Infrastructure Program to rebuild the boat launch.
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The study makes dozens of specific recommendations for all the village’s parks and priotizes each of them them with Riverside, Eddy and Library Parks being identified as high priorities. The BBQ Grounds are listed as medium priority and Aldermere Ridge, Woodland and Hankin Parks had low priority rankings.
It also makes some recommendations for the Dockrill Rink Community Garden and Airstrip although these are not listed as official parks.
The report was informed by a parks survey and one-on-one interviews during July 2020. They also received two children’s drawings.
The survey garnered 137 responses 81.8 per cent of whom said they lived in Telkwa. More than 95 per cent of respondents said the parks system enhances the overall quality of life for Telkwa residents.
The most pressing issue identified was addressing gaps in the trail system with 57.5 per cent saying they wanted to see improvements in interconnectivity.
Trails connectivity was also the number one area of improvement for one-on-one interviews, which involved 15 representatives of 11 key organizations and community groups.
Maintenance, landscaping and accessibility were the other top improvements called for.
Laurelin Svisdahl, a principal with the Prince George-based landscape architecture firm presented the plan to Telkwa council at its March 9 meeting.
Council voted to receive it for infomation. The entire report is available on the village’s website.
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