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HomeNewsBracebridge's General Committee approves pump track and community park, council approval still...

Bracebridge’s General Committee approves pump track and community park, council approval still needed

“I’m pleased to see this report come forward,” Bracebridge Mayor Graydon Smith said just before the town’s General Committee unanimously approved of the pump track and community park project.

The chosen spot is on a 9.34-acre piece of land situated between Little Ryan’s Way, Douglas Drive, and the Canadian National rail line, which is just steps away from the Bracebridge Sportsplex. 

The report by Gillian Mitchell, Parks and Trails Forepoerson, and Cindy O’Regan, Director of Recreation, was released last week

“Pump tracks are both playgrounds and riding facilities for bikers, skateboarders, or scooter riders of all skill levels,” Mitchell and O’Regan explain in their report. “A pump track is a circuit of rollers, banked turns and features designed for riders so they can use their momentum, created from their arms and legs, to pump their bike/board/scooters around the track.”

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While no one on committee questioned the long-awaited project, Coun. Don Smith did ask why the pump track is, in the initial design, placed at the far end of the property. “It seems to almost be isolated in its location,” he said.

Mitchell noted that town staff will be working with a consultant group later in the year to discuss the design. “We will certainly pass along the comments,” she said.

However, she pointed out that the chosen spot is suitable since it’s the flattest area of the nearly 10-acre property. 

Mitchell said the aforementioned consultant’s report will be brought back to committee when it’s completed, but didn’t provide a timeline for when that will happen.

In the town’s 2021 budget, $170,000 was set aside for the project, but it was deferred to 2022. In this year’s budget, a separate $53,000 was earmarked for the “design and engineering components for a community park that includes a pump track.” 

Bracebridge council still needs to give its stamp of approval before the project can move forward. They meet next on Wednesday, March 16.

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