HIGH RIVER, AB: Next week, the Town of High River will begin construction on a new park space at the former Water Tower site at the corner of 8 Avenue S.E. and 3 Street S.E. The new space was designed based on the thoughts and ideas High River residents provided during various community engagement sessions.
“We’ve been looking forward to this day since we started the design process,” says Tannas Webb, Parks Supervisor for the Town of High River. “We really wanted to create a space that our residents wanted to use and could enjoy, a space that brings people together to play, to connect and build community.”
The Foothills Kinettes helped to make it all possible. They partnered with the Town to conduct community engagement and raise funds to support the park development.
“As a group whose motto is “serving the community’s greatest need,’ revitalizing the former Water Tower site was a way that we could help enrich the vibrancy of High River, and give back to our community,” says Jenny Jones with the Kinnettes.
Along with brand new, accessible play structure, the new park space features a 71-ft. zip-line. Benches, tables and proper lighting will adorn the luscious open green space of the park to allow residents the option of having a family picnic or friendly football game with friends and neighbours.
“We are hoping to continue working closing with the Town and raise additional funds to implement future design features into the park,” says Jones.
Residents interested in donating financial resources are welcome to contact the Kinettes directly by visiting www.highriverkinettes.com.
Engagement sessions took place from November 2017 to April 2018. Through surveys and community cafes, participants were asked to provide their feedback on initial concepts by ranking their choices of features and amenities that they feel would be most beneficial to the space. For example, a playground, seating, shade and custom features such as a climbing structure or zip-line.
“It was important to us to build a space that matched the energy and community spirit of High River while also balancing the available resources, and that’s where hearing directly from residents really helped,” says Webb.
“What came out of all the discussions during engagement is what we are sharing with High Riverites today.”
Construction will be taking place throughout summer, with the goal of holding a celebration/opening event in early fall. Please visit highriver.ca/water-tower-park for regular updates on construction progress, including the opening event date.
