The City of Lethbridge has officially launched the second and final phase of its Legacy Park development.
The park features a discovery playground, a spray park, pavilion, and picnic shelter.
The project has been years in the making, and Mayor Blaine Hyggen says the overwhelming support from previous councils and mayors is what made the transition so easy.
“It’s something that every council member was in support of, they just loved this idea. So, it wasn’t hard to move and transition it between councils because everyone was in support of this.”
Chris Witkowski, parks planning manager for the city, says one of the biggest struggles they faced was trying to accommodate as many resident requests as possible.
“Residents have high expectations, as they should, this is a big investment. Sometimes, some of those interests compete with each other, and it can be a little taxing, a little hard sometimes to make everyone happy. But, at the end of the day, the highs far outweigh the lows on this project, by a long shot.”
The park was made possible by funding from all levels of government. $4,947,000 from the Canada Community-Building Fund (CCBF, formerly the Federal Gas Tax Fund) went towards areas like the building of the spray park and the group picnic shelter. $4,050,000 went towards the pavilion and plaza, and came from the province’s Municipal Sustainability Initiative (MSI) funding.
Witkowski adds community engagement was a big part of helping the new park come to life, and that the city wants to see even more community engagement in the future.
