Rotary Park boardwalk construction completed
Yellowknife Rotary Club volunteers finish boardwalk through wetlands
Robin Grant
Northern News Services
Wednesday, October 5, 2016
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Several years and about a kilometre of pressurized wood later, the boardwalk through the wetlands in Rotary Club Park on School Draw Avenue is finally complete.
Members of the Yellowknife Rotary Club, Bob Brooks, front, Chuck Tolley, left Greg Hoffos and Claudia Parker, back, work on the Rotary Club boardwalk project on School Draw Avenue in early September. - photo courtesy of Yellowknife Rotary Club |
Construction began in 2007 and every year the all-volunteer crew, composed of architects, engineers and business people have carefully chipped away at it.
Rotarian Chuck Tolley worked on the project since 2007. He said he enjoyed the cool autumn weekends while working on the project and the camaraderie it created among the volunteers.
"It was a wonderful project. I loved working on it," he said. He worked on the project since the beginning, and says he enjoyed the camaraderie it created among the volunteers. "I'm kind of sad it ended ... well, I'm glad it's done for people's benefit. But it was great working with the volunteers and various groups involved."
Construction continued only when it didn't disrupt the wildlife and birds' nesting period and when weather permitted. This meant heaving gravel on snowmobiles in the spring and building in the early fall.
The completed boardwalk continues to offer people access to the waterfront and wildlife without disturbing the area.
"You're stepping away from the immediate residential area so there's a wetland area, there's the birds that are nesting there each year,"said Yellowknife Rotary Club project manager Peter Vician. "Last weekend, the migratory swans were actually in the bay and a number of people were admiring and viewing the swans. It was just fantastic."
The Rotary's boardwalk project was conducted in partnership with the City of Yellowknife - the city provided the tools and the club provided the labour.
"It was a weekend project," Vician said. "The issue there is getting the time on weekends, but we made good headway each year."
Vician says the project is helping the city achieve its broader objective of providing more access to the waterfront.
"We worked with the city, so it's consistent with the rest of the town's design," he said.
This isn't the first charitable project the Rotary Club has undertaken in the city. In the 1990s, club volunteers built the walkway and lookouts around Niven Lake and also helped design and build the CNIB garden on 52 Street.
Director of community services Grant White said the new boardwalk is a great way for people to get outside and experience the natural world.
"It gets people out to the nature area without necessarily trampling all over," he said. "There's a specific walkway, it gets people out and is used all year around. It's just a fantastic facility."
Volunteers hope the finishing touch to the project, a gazebo on a raised platform, will be completed in time for Canada's 150th anniversary next year.
