Okanagan's Stanley Park?

With excitement building along with construction of the Okanagan Rail Trail, ideas on how to run and maintain the 48-kilometre line between Kelowna and Coldstream are now being considered.

“Let's focus on the opportunity,” Brad Clements of the Okanagan Rail Trail Initiative urged the Greater Vernon Advisory Commitee on Thursday. “This is an opportunity to build a Stanley Park. Let's build a legacy.”

Heavy construction work on the trail began in the North Okanagan last week as rock scaling began in Lake Country.

If funding is available, the trail could be completed by the end of next year, said Andrew Gibbs,  inter-jurisdictional development team project manager.

“Your section will be complete by, let's say, January or spring at the latest, followed by Lake Country and then followed by Kelowna,” Gibbs said.

“It may be available for public use a lot sooner than we thought,” said Coldstream director Doug Dirk. “We're going to be first. It is incumbent on us to push and lead and bring everybody together.”

Gibbs said a consultant had been hired to talk about the issues of maintenance and governance.

A meeting of all jurisdictions was expected to take place in either November or January when, hopefully, direction could be given to staff, he said.

Clements said donations from business and the public had been fantastic, leaving just over $2 million of the $7.5 million construction budget to raise.

He said a Christmas campaign would try to raise more funds.

A separate delegation, from the Ribbons of Green, urged the committee to look at the bigger picture.

“You need to be able to connect to the Central Okanagan but also to the north, to Sicamous,” said Victor Cumming, president of the group.

He reminded the committee of the host of trails in the North Okanagan, including the Grey Canal Trail, Middleton Mountain and the planned Crystal Water Trail.

“Ribbons of Green wants to bring our volunteer strength to the process. These big things are just being finished.”

The public is also reminded that the Okanagan Rail Trail is now a construction site and are asked to keep off of it.