Over a year ago, Paul Walker suggested in a conversation that when the Woolwich Agricultural Society pays its loans, it hopes to do a lot for the community.
Walker, the president of the society that runs the Grand River Raceway, said on Monday the debts are not quite yet paid off.
Nevertheless, the raceway presented Centre Wellington council with $125,000 at its committee of the whole meeting on Monday to help the township redevelop Bissell Park, the largest such public space in Elora.
Township Parks and Recreation Director Andy Goldie made the announcement at council, and then Walker and raceway General Manager Ted Clarke presented the cheque.
“The Grand River Agricultural Society is pleased to support the Township of Centre Wellington, and the community, in the redevelopment of this picturesque, multi-use recreational area adjacent to downtown Elora,” said Walker. “It has great potential.”
“Thank you so much,” said an ecstatic Mayor Joanne Ross-Zuj. “We have wonderful plans for Bissell Park, and this will help so much.”
Redeveloping the lands along the Grand River at the Bissell dam was talked about in Elora long before amalgamation, but the only real work that seemed to get done came when the Elora Lions Club built a pavilion and made some other improvements at the site. An old cement pad has served as an outdoor rink with volunteer flooders and ice cleaners, and in the summer there are basketball nets on it.
The village placed boulders around the park to prevent vehicles from driving on the grass. After that it sat, with the grass mowed, but little else being done.
But the Lions Club, too, has pledged $50,000 to the park work, and it seems that more work is now on the horizon.
Goldie said the first phase of the redevelopment plan, which could run from $500,000 to $1-million, will be a boardwalk along the river from Melvin Street to the creek. The second phase will see that boardwalk expanded to reach the pedestrian bridge that was built across the Grand River about 12 years ago.
“We just got permission from the GRCA,” Goldie said of the Grand River Conservation Authority. That was necessary because the land where the boardwalk will be placed is in a flood plain.
The third phase will be the big job.
“We’re working on getting consultants for the multi-use area,” Goldie said.
The township did a master plan for the park last summer, and it includes an outdoor performing area, near the current Lions Club pavilion. The rink and basketball court users will also see some washroom located nearby. But, Goldie said, there is a steep grade in that part of the park, and so experts will need to determine the best way to incorporate everything.
He noted, too, that the Elora Festival has indicated it has some interest in holding concerts at the performing area once it is built. Goldie said a construction plan for the outdoor performance area has yet to be finalized, but the grant is an encouraging sign.
“First, we need a detailed design of the rink and the outdoor venue,” he said.
And with $175,000 already committed – none of it in tax dollars – the project appears to be well underway.
Goldie said the township approached the Agricultural Society for some help, and the $125,000 donation was its response.
Councillors later noted in their meeting the Agricultural Society last year gave the township a $9,000 grant to help kick-start a water use education program for school children.
And councillor Walt Visser pointed out that $9,000 grant is an annual one.
