The Kimberley Rotary Club unveiled recently completed Marysville Falls walkway rebuild project on Wednesday, May 31, the culmination of several years of work and a major accomplishment for the club and the community.
“As a Rotary Club we’re proud and honoured to be able to complete the rebuilding of the Marysville Falls Walkway and trail down to the viewing station,” said Rotarian Brian Mullen, who spearheaded the project. “We’re just so happy to be able to do this for our community.”
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Mullen gave some history about the original walkway to the crowd gathered at the Eco Park across the street from the walkway.
The original walkway was also a Rotary project completed in 1982 that took around four years to execute. The work was done by a group of young adults from the federal Katimavik project. Much of the wood came from a mill owned by former Rotarian Al Fabro, whose name the walkway bears to this day.
READ MORE: Kimberley Rotary Club planning major rehab of walkway to Marysville Falls
Mullen said that beyond making the new walkway sturdier and safer than its aged predecessor, a major goal of this project was to make the walk to the falls — a major sightseeing destination for locals and tourists alike — more accessible.
“We’ve raised the level up two or three feet in places to allow the removal of some stairs that were there previously,” Mullen said. “For most people here stairs aren’t a big deal, but if you’re mobility challenged, stairs are a very big deal and we’ve removed that barrier with the new walkway and that’s a tremendous achievement.”
The project, which began in summer 2021, came to a “grinding halt” after vendor selection and initial fundraising had been done, according to Mullen, because the provincial government failed to issue an environmental permit within the initially planned timeline.
“This caused me a great deal of angst because some of our funding was predicated on getting our project done on a certain date and so I had to scramble around and go to some of our major funders and get some relief from that deadline,” Mullen explained.
The permit came through in April, but Mullen said that during that delay, materials became scarcer and costs went way up.
He gave Ryan Sarfield of KulKon Construction, the company contracted for the rebuild, special recognition for all the ideas he came up with to save money and build the walkway that exists today with the funds that were available.
“This project involved a lot of people; a lot of entities and a lot of individuals,” Mullen said. “The saying is it takes a village to raise a child, but it takes a village to rebuild a boardwalk.”
The biggest financial contributor to the project was the BC Ministry of Tourism, who contributed over $200,000. Columbia Basin Trust, the City of Kimberley, the Regional District of East Kootenay, Teck were other major contributors, as well as KulKon Construction, ISL Engineering, Kimberley and District Community Foundation, the Rotary Club of Kimberley and the Hammond Family.
The project was also supported by numerous in-kind contributors. Home Depot in Cranbrook contributed two tranches of composite decking — which is ‘bloody expensive’, as Mullen put it. Lotic Environmental did all of the work for the environmental permit application — a 40-page document.
The City of Kimberley contributed with tree clearing and fence removal. The Kimberley Trails Society (KTS) dealt with the extremely difficult task of tearing out the old walkway. KTS saved as much of the old lumber as they could to use on future trail projects.
“I participated in some of that work and it was nasty, tearing out 40-year-old pieces of lumber with rusty screws and the work environment was not that easy,” Mullen said. “We are truly grateful to KTS.”
Rotary Club members pitched in with their own efforts, installing decking or cutting wood. Tim Foley of Purcell Golf stored composite decking for the project. Teck stored composite decking as well, for two and a half years. Phil Salgado, who owns Peak Development that is building new affordable housing right next to the falls, allowed access through his property so the lower area could be paved.
READ MORE: Kimberley Rotary Club secures grant for Marysville Falls walkway rehab
Justine Cohen, manager, delivery of benefits at Columbia Basin Trust, said it’s a ‘great project’ and that it’s her ‘absolute pleasure to congratulate the Rotary Club of Kimberley on such a successful implementation.’
“Projects like this speak to the very heart of our Trail Enhancement Grant Program,” she said. “Part of that is increasing accessibility for individuals with diverse abilities.
“On a personal note I’m so excited about that because I get to now bring my Grandma, who was born and raised in Kimberley, to walk down the trail, which we have not been able to do for a very long time.”
Mayor Don McCormick commended Mullen and the Rotary Club for not only completing an already “incredibly difficult,” but doing so while also navigating challenges stemming from the Covid-19 pandemic.
“This trail, as everybody knows, looked every minute of its 40 years old before the revitalization started,” McCormick said. “It was never accessible, it was treacherous in the winter, and frankly it wasn’t all that safe in the summertime either.”
He added that despite its age, the site has always been one of the premier locations in Kimberley visited by locals and visitors to town.
“This upgrade both from a safety point of view and from an aesthetics point of view to make it just much more accessible for everybody, it’s not only long overdue but its’ going to really enhance the perception that people have of our community when they come down that trail to use it.”
paul.rodgers@kimberleybulletin
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