Avid walkers hope to further connect their communities with a 10 kilometre trail through Black Diamond and Turner Valley and connecting to the Friendship Trail.
Members of a grassroots conversation forum called the Healthy Development Committee are discussing the potential of the trail with Town administration, councillors and the Turner Valley Golf Club to determine the viability of getting such a project off the ground.
Turner Valley resident Murray Knowler has been involved in the discussions and hopes the plan takes off.
“I think it would be a great thing,” he said. “There’s some big-time challenges to it in terms of expense, but I think it would be a treat for the community to have the pathway on both sides of the river.”
John Waring, an avid walker and Turner Valley Town councillor, said the group plans to pursue the project through volunteers, who will determine the feasibility of the project and how much needs to be raised, rather than asking the Towns for money.
“I think the next step is to get the blessing of the town councils that they agree in principal and then go to the golf club and ask for approval for it to travel through their lands,” he said. “Once we’ve got permission from the golf course and a blessing from the two councils we can get a group of people together to create a society and start doing the work. I would like to see us start working next year.”
The pathway route and surface are currently under discussion, with consideration for a soft-surface pathway along the Sheep River at the north end of the golf course, said Waring.
Gary Taylor, general manager of the Turner Valley Golf Club, recently walked along the north side of the golf course with committee members to look at potential places for the pathway. He said a pathway proposal will be presented to the board of directors when details are confirmed.
“A path would benefit the golf course in a number of ways, as well as the community,” he said. “There’s potential for run clubs, snowshoe clubs and increased traffic to the clubhouse.”
The Turner Valley Golf Club owns land along the river linking Turner Valley and Black Diamond, some of which contains worn paths despite the placement of “no trespassing” signs on the property, Taylor said.
Rod Ross, Black Diamond’s planning and development officer, joined the committee on a walk through a portion of Black Diamond the group is considering for the pathway and said he likes the idea of a connected pathway system between Black Diamond and Turner Valley.
“There’s certainly a lot of merit in a pathway linking the towns on the south side of the river just like we’ve got the Friendship Trail on the north side of the river,” he said. “There’s something really satisfying to do a loop rather than returning on the same route you went in on.”
Ross said a pathway could provide numerous connections in the communities such as linking the golf course to Oilfields High School and Black Diamond to Turner Valley on the south side of the river.
“It’s at the exploratory stage right now,” he said. “We would have to work with the golf course and get involvement from the MD of Foothills as the path is through their jurisdiction. We haven’t talked to council about it.”
The Town of Black Diamond developed a pathways plan in 2006 that explored a potential trail through the golf course following the west end sewage pipeline right of way, but nothing further was done with the plan, Ross said, adding he hopes to see progress with this newest initiative.
“We really want to increase the connectivity to our trails,” he said. “We have a lot of trails that are disjointed and don’t link up with one another.”
Ross said he would like to hear what the public’s expectations are.
“Would you rather have a very short paved pathway or a much longer natural pathway?” he said. “It’s something we’re going to be looking into for sure.”
Barry Williamson, the Town of Turner Valley’s chief administrative officer, said he’d be interested in hearing the plans for the potential pathway.
“We obviously support it,” he said, adding the Town set aside $350,000 to construct a pathway system along Decalta Road. “For citizens to do that with other stakeholders that’s great, but in terms of the role the Town plays it has to be done under certain protocols and processes and that’s what we will look to see develop around this.”
Chris Weingarth, a member of the healthy development committee, envisions the next step would be establishing a non-profit organization to shepherd the process and apply for funding sources, while keep stakeholders in touch with each other.
