ParticipACTION has a team working to secure additional funds for the project. (Town of La Ronge)

By Derek Cornet

physical activity

La Ronge ParticiPARK to cost $406K

Apr 11, 2024 | 5:00 PM

At a regular council meeting earlier this week, La Ronge council learned the cost of a ParticiPARK will cost an estimated $406,000.

Planning for a ParticiPARK began in January 2023 when it was announced the town was one of four Canadian communities chosen for the project through ParticipACTION.

Of that estimate provided, $82,500 is earmarked for programming elements, $55,000 for log work and components, $55,000 for design, shipping and construction costs, $50,000 for trails, and $41,000 for landscape features.

The current budget commitment from town council is $130,000.

“What we have now is considered the final conceptional designs,” explained project manager Stacy Halonen.

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“There is still some feedback we’ve collected from the advisory committee in the town on the third design, so we will still document any feedback and bring that forward as we move into the build phase. The next phase and the current focus is securing the additional revenues that are needed to build the park as they were designed with the assumption that we would collect some revenues from additional funds in addition to what the community was putting forward.”

ParticipACTION has a team working to secure the difference through federal, provincial and municipal grants, corporate sponsorship and value-in-kind opportunities. They have already applied for several different grants, including through the Public Health Agency of Canada, which funded the design phase.

Park Area 2 is the space chosen by council for the project. (Town of La Ronge)

The current timeline calls for a non-legal binding memorandum of understanding to be signed with the municipality this summer with the tendering process to begin this fall.

The site chosen for the new park is off of Robertson Drive and will include a two-loop trail system. As park users walk through the system, they will come across four to five nodes that will serve as stations for low and high intensity activities, as well as an agility obstacle course.

“The intention is not to make it look like an outdoor gym, the intention is it’s a natural park with natural apparatuses and natural features and that we are incorporating physical activity into that design, so it’s really meant to be bit of that physical activity, but also enjoy nature and not feel like you’re in a gym setting,” Halonen said.

“In a lot of cases, the materials, the furniture is multipurpose because we are also incorporating physical activity into the trail system and into these nodes.”

The other selected communities are Brampton, Ont., Fredericton, N.B., and Winnipeg. More information about the project can be found online here.

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derek.cornet@pattisonmedia.com