The Town of Lake Cowichan is still basking in the glow of its new public dock at Saywell Park.
A donation on Monday by the Lake Cowichan Secondary School graduating class of 2013 (see above) was simply the cherry on top.
The final touches and a gangplank installed in September marked the finish of the Cowichan Lake Education Centre’s 40-week project.
Dalton Smith manager of CLEC applied for and received funding from the provincial government’s job creation program for three projects. Donations from private citizens and businesses in Lake Cowichan were also received for the project(s) as well as from TimberWest, Catalyst Paper and the Town of Lake Cowichan.
The three-part project consisted of hiring six people to build public washrooms behind the Cowichan Lake Visitor Information Centre, the renovation of the boxcar for the Kaatza Station Museum and the floating dock. The washrooms and the boxcar were finished earlier this year.
Cliff Gibson — owner of local marine construction company Jornic Marine — donated his time and talent to oversee the building of the dock that will help prevent damage to the riparian area at the water’s edge.
Smith has high praise for TimberWest and their donation of a logging truck load of cedar logs that were then milled into planks to build the dock. Also, for a tax receipt, the firm gave the land under the dock to the Town of Lake Cowichan.
The Cowichan Lake and River Stewardship Society is working to clear blackberries and vegetation from the area to make access to the dock easier.
The dock will enable the public to easily access the river for a number of things like, for example, fishing and swimming or just to sit and relax.