Lake Cowichan’s Kinsmen Club is hoping to work with town council in order to improve the playground equipment at the Duck Pond.
A Kinsmen delegation showed up at council’s Parks, Recreation and Culture Committee meeting last Tuesday at town hall in a bid to receive funds from council to go ahead with the work.
The move comes after numerous attempts by the Kinsmen to attain grants-in-aid from various avenues were knocked back.
“The Duck Pond is high on our radar,” said Troy Douglas at the meeting. “The upper float is in rough shape and what we can’t do on our own is update the playground equipment. Hundreds of people use it.”
Douglas and other Kinsmen are envisioning a long string of maintenance work that will bring the pond’s equipment up to what they see as modern day standards.
“We’d like to see more maintenance. We’d like to see the bathrooms painted and possibly a mural on the wall. We could target fundraising money if the town supports us. It’d be close to $100,000 to bring it up to 21st century standards as right now, it’s not nice for the town’s kids.”
Coun. Tim McGonigle was appreciative of Douglas’ vision and pleas.
“I think the key here is collaboration. We can look at your vision, you can look at ours and then we can see what we’re able to finance. The Duck Pond is a major attraction in the summertime. The playground equipment there is not in our budget this year.”
Like McGonigle, Mayor Ross Forrest believes there’s a stronger chance of money being raised if the town and the Kinsmen Club work together.
“Municipalities aren’t eligible to apply for BC Lottery money but with you working with us, that creates stronger possibilities,” said the mayor.