Skip to content

City gives final go ahead for outdoor fitness park

The Grand Forks recreation complex will soon be adding an outdoor fitness park as well as a demonstration community garden.
54354grandforksWEBFitnesspark
Proposed plan for outdoor fitness park for GF Rec Centre

The Grand Forks recreation complex will soon be adding an outdoor fitness park as well as a demonstration community garden.At the March 24 city council meeting, Grand Forks City Council approved a license of occupation which allows the Regional District of Kootenay Boundary (RDKB) to move forward with their development plans for the installation of the project.“It’s a regional district project,” said Mayor Brian Taylor. “It’s going into that piece between the east end of the pool and the skatepark. Our permission was to use a 100-square-metre piece of land to give them enough room for the whole installation.”The outdoor fitness park will be a linear design featuring 12 to 14 pieces of outdoor equipment.“We have ground preparations still to do but we’re hoping to have it all up and done by the end of June,” said John Mackey, manager of recreation and facilities. “The financing and everything just got approved last week when the regional district budgets were approved.”The equipment is expected to cost $35,000 and the total cost of the project will be around $55,000, said Mackey.The fitness park will by a 300-square-metre (10m by 30m) project in total.“All our quotes are in (for the purchase of the equipment), so we just have to finalize the selection process,” he said. “We’ll install it ourselves like we’ve done in the past.”Mackey said the outdoor fitness park will be a great addition to the facility and the community in general.“It’ll handle all ages,” he said. “It’s for the whole community. Kids can use it. It’ll be wheelchair accessible. We want to keep people active. It’s a popular trend across the country.”Mackey added that the outdoor fitness park will be tied in to a demonstration community garden.“We’re looking at building a demonstration garden around the back of the aquatic centre and having it wrap around the building and incorporating part of the fitness centre as well,” said Mackey. The demonstration garden is still in the preliminary, planning stage but when completed will beautify the area and allow the community to plant an edible landscape with lawn and trees.Graham Watt, project coordinator for the Kettle River Watershed Management Plan, is part of a number of people working on the demonstration community garden project and says the idea of the garden is to provide a number of different functions including providing food from the trees, shrubs and vines, and providing shade for the people exercising outside. “The idea is to celebrate food and sustainable food in particular in a small, urban scale that pushes the edge of what sustainability can mean,” said Watt. “It’s a pretty exciting opportunity. It’s gardening with an ecosystem as opposed to having something you always have to maintain.”Watt said he envisions being able to go outside after his swim at the pool and grabbing a peach from a tree on the southside.Mackey adds that he expects that the garden space will really add to the beauty of the entire area.“It’s what’s called a demonstration garden – it’s for education and learning,” he said. “The initial designs are quite exciting. Our portion is that we would like them to use our land and make it more accessible. We’re hoping that finally after 25 years we can have this whole rec centre site fully landscaped and developed and neat and clean as part of the community.”