Is there Anything Happening in Lake Country? Part 3

This week I would like to continue the story of what’s happening in Lake Country with more details on infrastructure, water and the Parks and Recreation Department.  If you have read Alberto’s blogs then you are familiar with his story of the grasshopper and the ant where the grasshopper spends all summer with his feet up, relaxing while the ants run around preparing for the long, chilly winter ahead.  Of course we all know that the District’s infrastructure is vital to the wellbeing of our citizens and businesses. But did you know that much of our infrastructure will be reaching the end of its useful life over the next few decades?  The District has prepared a 20 year plan called the Integrated Asset Management Capital Plan (IAMCP), which is a really long name for a plan that tells us what needs to be replaced, when it needs to be replaced and how much it’s going to cost. The IAMCP is the District being ants. Not only are we going to be prepared for when the time comes, we are already working like little ants to get ready for the long winter ahead. Some of the things already underway are:

·         The Liquid Waste Management Plan, which is being updated with the Ministry of Environment, gives us a 20 year plan for how we collect and manage liquid waste. It is being done at the same time as the predesign for the Wastewater Treatment Plant Phase 3 Expansion to make sure we are continuing to move forward with our plans.

·         The $5 million Kal Lake Interconnect project will give us the ability to put Kal Lake Water into the Oyama Lake water source giving us more options, and more water, in times of drought and during peak seasons. It will include 1 new reservoir, a new pump station, new pipelines (already done!) and ultraviolet disinfection capabilities.

·         I’m hoping everyone has heard of our Water Master Plan project? We have done mail outs, held information sessions and done presentations to as many committees (both internal and external) that we could get to. The Water Master Plan final documents will be presented to Council in early 2012 and then water rates will be discussed by the new Council during budget time.

And where do we even begin with the Parks and Recreation Department, which is now called the Parks, Recreation and Culture Department. Their list of Capital Projects goes on for an entire page! Just look at all the great amenities we have in Lake Country: tennis courts, the Trethewey Splash Park, Padel courts and some of the most beautiful and sought after soccer fields in the entire Okanagan. 

This year the Lakes Resident Association and the District joined forces to build the Apex Drive Park project. The Association provided free pizza and masses of people (ok maybe not masses but definitely swarms) came out to help build this wonderful asset to the community.

The Winfield Recreation Centre is continuing along its expansion phases which saw new dressing rooms and door upgrades last year with refrigeration, compressors, dehumidifier upgrades and a lighting retrofit in 2011.  Not only did the lighting upgrades help us reduce our carbon footprint by replacing 35 year old light fixtures with a new, high efficiency system, we were also able to install some groovy lights that make the winter DJ skates a huge hit! Check out this video from the first skate event using the new system.

The Parks, Recreation and Culture Department also made the move of bringing contracted services in-house this year which has turned out to be a huge advantage.  Services have improved significantly with no budget impact, the parks staff are highly skilled and have the specific knowledge, equipment and training to get at the problem, get it fixed and do it quickly.

This was also the first year that Lake Country got involved in the Communities in Bloom Project with Kelowna offering to mentor us for the first go around. Everyone in Lake Country dashed around cleaning, planting and making our already beautiful community shine. On July 20^th the judges arrived and were loaded into a bus for the grand tour. And do you know what they saw? Shiny, happy people… …everywhere! A family was enjoying a beautiful afternoon at Kopje Park, the Lake Country Boys and Girls Club had the kids on a field trip at the Swalwell Park, there was a tournament being held at the tennis courts, a group of people from the Connect Brain Injury Clinic were visiting the Community Gardens, Padel was in full swing, the soccer fields were full and kids were enjoying the playground at Jack Seaton Park. Not only were the judges impressed but staff were moved by what they saw.  Sometimes just stepping back to see and appreciate what we already have in our wonderful little Lake Country can inspire us in moving forward and making it even better.

The Parks projects may be ones that are most visible in the community but there are so many other things going on behind the scenes (and under the ground) in the District.  All these projects, and the dedicated staff that are working on them, are so vitally important to the growth, sustainability and health of our community.  We are planning and working for the future so we can continue to live Life…the Okanagan Way.

Reyna