With the imminent coming of winter, there will be something to have everyone looking past the cold and snow and more to the sun and sand. The Anniversary Park redevelopment project is in the very final stages, equipped with a gorgeous sandy beach.
On October 27th, Michael Hobson (Senior Engineer with McElhanney), Kelly Wilkinson (Senior Landscape Architectural Technologist with McElhanney), Ray Cramer (Wilco Construction) took Mayor Patricia Matthews, Megan Matthies (Communications Coordinator for the Town of Chestermere) and myself on a tour of the nearly completed park.
With the project being announced in the summer of 2013, the original goal of completion was one year and with the grand opening of the park being held during Winterfest (January 2015), the project was obviously hit with a few delays. The two biggest contributors to the delay were the needing to work around the lake being lowered last fall in order to build the retaining wall and, this goes without saying, the long, cold, snowy winter weather definitely didn’t help things.
Although the project did go over their initial completion goal by about six months, it was happily reported that the project did stay within the budget forecast. This project received its funding from provincial grants, sponsorships and corporate funds – no tax dollars were used in this redevelopment.
With winter right around the corner, the final few touches to be completed are the washroom facility, the Cenotaph and getting the utilities all tied in. The park is equipped with park benches, trees, pathway and, of course, the sandy beach. With the grass newly laid, it is being asked of the public that even once the park is opened, to please stay off the grass. It is hoped that there will be signs and/or fencing up for the grand opening to remind the community that the grass will be off limits while it has time to take hold and grow.
One of the features that is of great significance, is the type of lighting that was installed. The light posts all have a vertical element, along with the standard element. The vertical element will shine towards the sides of the pathway to the trees, giving the pathway both down lighting and the vertical light coming off the trees once they are grown and full. Another feature that was getting quite a lot of chatter and speculation was the grassy hills in the centre of the park. No, they are not an error or a mini golf course….they are simply “cool” says Mayor Matthews. “When I take my kids to the beach, I want to sit on the grass, as do a lot of parents, while they enjoy the beach – without getting covered in sand. These grassy hills will give families the ability to enjoy the grass, be near their kids who are enjoying the beach and kids will think they are fun.” explained the Mayor.
Through the planning and development of the park, it was looked at from the perspective of families, parents, children… what would parents want to see? How could families come to the park and have something for everyone? With the extensive green spaces, pathway and beach….it should be a pretty popular spot come summer.
