If you don’t venture out to the airport very often, you may not realize how much the area around the confluence gets used for recreational purposes.
Both visitors and locals follow the Rotary Trail Network over the train tracks, and spend some time by the river. So the Rotary Club of Golden, with the help of a few partners, decided to fix up the area, and make it a bit more user friendly.
The area on the left hand side of the road (just past the train tracks on the way to the airport), has been altered for parking. And the area on the right hand side near the river has been turned into a park space.
A work crew of Rotary volunteers got together on Saturday Sept. 7 to spread the topsoil, lay in the seeding, lay concrete forms for picnic table platforms, and create a ramp path for better accessibility to the river.
“Next year we’ll do more landscaping, and we’re planning on adding a washroom as well,” said Rotarian Bob Finnie.
The Rotary Club of Golden has been planning to upgrade the current Confluence Park for about four years now, and has gone through a long process before finally breaking ground.
“It was developing into a pretty big thing, and as time went on and we saw all the requirements and assessments that needed to be done, it moved us into a different direction,” said Finnie.
One of the primary costs was going to be environmental assessments for the large portion of land they were going to develop. By focussing on the parking and picnic area they were able to move forward with just the approval of the Town of Golden.
“The Town approved the plan, and here we are,” said Finnie. “It’s great to see it getting done now. Every year we see it develop, and now we’re seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.”
Although spearheaded by Rotary, the project could not have been completed without the support and co-operation from the Town of Golden, HMC Services, Roy Patrick, Bill Braisher, and Golden Concrete.
