There may have been a nasty snowstorm blowing through the evening of Nov. 2 but it did not deter scores of business people and citizens from taking in the sixth annual Rotary Night at the Innisfail Library Learning Centre.
The evening, which featured the service club's annual wine tasting event, was a fundraiser for Rotary's planned nature trail development around Napoleon Lake, and to recognize the continued and valued contributions from the club's sponsors.
“It is a good chance for the community to come and help sponsor and raise money for us and have a good evening and visit,” said Rod Bradshaw, president of the Rotary Club of Innisfail. “The money we are raising tonight goes to some of our local projects. It helps the community and us sponsor our projects. It is a win-win for us. It lets people know what Rotary does and how we help the community.”
Rotary's primary current project for the community is to develop a nature trail around Napoleon Lake, a partnership it has with the town.
“It is going to start out very simple. Over the years we are going to develop it but it is going to be a multi-year project,” said Bradshaw. “There has always been a kind of a walking trail but it is going to be a natural trail.”
He said the first phase of the long-term project, which will cost just under $10,000, is to install new benches, tables and garbage receptacles around the lake.
Terry Welsh, the town's director of community and protective services, said the “collaborative partnership” with Rotary will see six benches, two picnic tables and three garbage receptacles installed around the lake next spring.
Bradshaw said that first step will lead to more ambitious initiatives at the lake.
“Over the years the vision is to put in observation spots and there are a few places we are going to have to build some infrastructure such as stairs and bridges over the marshy areas,” said Bradshaw.
He said the plan is to develop the nature trail all the way around Napoleon Lake, a loop of more than a kilometre and a half that ends up at Centennial Park, which was the focus of another Rotary project several years ago. “We will see over the years as it develops there will have to be more drawings and engineering done. It will be interesting to see where it goes at the end,” said Bradshaw.
He said Rotary's original intent when the project was first envisioned was “much like a paved highway” with a three-metre wide paved path but it was later thought to be too “prohibitive”
“We scaled it back and we've gone to where we will have a defined path. We are going to try and leave it as natural as possible,” said Bradshaw. “We want people to enjoy it but we also don't want to convolute the natural pathway.
“I think down the road there will be a more defined path where people can follow it all the way around and there will be observation decks to go and bird watch,” he added.
Meanwhile, the development of the nature trail around Napoleon Lake will only affect “indirectly” the future recreational amenities for the planned Napoleon Meadows residential subdivision, said Craig Teal, the town's director of planning and operations.
“The reason I say indirectly is that Rotary was going to do the trail system around Napoleon Lake regardless of where we were going to do a subdivision on the Napoleon Meadows site, and the citizens there will be able to enjoy a nice walk along the west side of Napoleon Lake,” said Teal. “When we do the development of Napoleon Meadows we are going to do some trail connections to connect the dots, so in that way it is related. It is common geography but two autonomous projects.”
