Kimberley will hopefully be getting another timber frame bridge, this time near the terminus of the Peak to Platzl trail, should a city grant application be successful.
Council has directed staff to apply to the BikeBC grant program for $72,500 to fund 50 per cent of the estimated $145,000 cost of a project designed to connect the Peaks to Platzl Trail and the downtown area with a separated pathway and a timber frame bridge, to apply to the BC Hydro Community Tree Planting Program for $10,000 to purchase and install trees to line the separated pathway. Council also directed staff to prepare a Reserve Fund Expenditure Bylaw for Council’s consideration of adoption to authorize the expenditure of $62,500 from the Kimberley Reserve Fund as the City’s contribution to the project.
“The plan is for the bimber frame bridge to go in across Mark Creek right where there is currently a water pipe with a little metal walkway over it,” said Mayor Don McCormick. “It’s important to finish the Peak to Platzl Trail. It cost a lot of money to build but was never really finished. There’s no trail head at the top and it just stops at the bottom on the hill in what is essentially a gravel pit. It’s important to make that connection, so that visitors at the Resort know it’s a route downtown. It’s not signed as well as it could be either.”
McCormick says the city should get an answer on the grant early in the new year and the project will be completed in 2017 if the grant applicatin is successful.