The 23 km Rotary Trail circles the entire city. (File photo/paNOW Staff)

By Alison Sandstrom

Recreation excellence

Prince Albert’s Rotary Trail wins provincial award

Nov 3, 2020 | 3:07 PM

A well-loved community asset is getting some recognition on the provincial stage.

Prince Albert’s Rotary Trail has won this year’s Parks and Open Space Award from the Saskatchewan Parks and Recreation Association. The honour recognizes excellence in the planning, design and development of a park or open space in the province.

The 23 km loop was completed last fall, 19 years after the project began.

Dave Fischl, chair of the Rotary Trail Committee, has been there since the beginning. On Tuesday he accepted the award near the river bank, accompanied by Mayor Greg Dionne and director of community services for the city, Jody Boulet. Boulet is also the Saskatchewan Parks and Recreation Association director for cities.

“It was a beautiful day and there were a lot of people using the trail,” Fischl told paNOW. “It’s just so nice to see that it can be used by anyone. It doesn’t matter how young or old you are, what condition you’re in.”

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It’s fitting that the trail is being well-used by the community because as Fischl pointed out, they were the driving force behind its completion.

“The people of Prince Albert are the ones that made it happen,” he said. “This would have never happened without a lot of businesses, a lot of personal commitments from a lot of people to get the trail around the city.”

Mayor Greg Dionne (left), Dave Fischl (centre) and Coun. Don Cody (right) use shovels to spread asphalt onto the last meter of the Rotary Trail at a October 2019 event to mark its completion. (Alison Sandstrom/paNOW Staff)

Director of Community Services Jody Boulet agreed the trail was a city-wide effort, and expressed his gratitude to everyone involved, especially Fischl and his team of volunteers.

“To see it finished and to have all the previous efforts recognized, I think is very fitting,” he said.

Boulet added the focus going forward, along with keeping the trail accessible to everyone year-round, will be on events it can be used for. In addition to the successful annual Summit Run, Boulet said the city has already had productive conversations with local sponsors about new races.

“Now having the full loop gives us the opportunity to focus on different marathon and major-type events,” he said.

Meanwhile Fischl said there’s some talk of extending the trail out to Little Red River Park in the future, although he’ll probably take a break before he tackles that project.

“There’s 3.5 km out to Little Red that would be great to attach to the Rotary Trail because that’s another area that the residents use a lot,” he explained.

“My mind’s always going, but I did need to take a little bit of time off, this last one was fairly long.”

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alison.sandstrom@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @alisandstrom