Westwinds secures funding to connect seniors lodge to Black Diamond

Seniors at High Country Lodge will have a new connection to Black Diamond walkways.

Foothills County was able to provide funding from the Municipal Stimulus Program (MSP) grant for the pathway by the seniors home.

Following the closure and removal of a path linking the housing to downtown sidewalks via 1 Street West after it was deemed unsafe, seniors were left with reduced pedestrian access to the town.

After Westwinds Communities had unsuccessfully applied for funding twice to create a new walkway, Foothills County stepped in providing funding from leftover MSP funds.

Foothills County Coun. Alan Alger sits on the board for Westwinds Community and said the old pathway was steep and quite dangerous and in need of replacement, but that it was well-utilized.

“Westwinds closed the old pathway and then demolished it and then of course, made plans for for the new pathway, but just the funding just never came through,” Alger said in a phone interview. “From a safety standpoint, this is to replace an old pathway that was extremely dangerous.

"So through this grant funding that the province got, we had a little leftover in the County funds so we discussed it, and allocated that for Westwinds to do the pathway."

The MSP funds from Foothills County is $37,394, said to County CAO Harry Riva Cambrin.

Westwinds executive director Lauren Ingalls said the new pathway will run east to west, connecting a pathway that runs out of the north of the property from Oilfields Hospital to Government Road along a utility right-of-way.

She said the pathway will have two benches as well as two “doggy drop” waste disposals for pet users, and be lined with the hospital fence on one side and a post and tension cable fence on the other.

Ingalls added the new pathway will be much safer and more convenient.

“Most importantly, it's going to be a leisurely slope that will be very safe for seniors,” she said. “It'll be easy for people to walk to bike ride, it won't have the hazardous slope the old pathway had.

“It'll be much more convenient for people accessing the hospital, as opposed to walking through the large property, through parking lots and grassy areas.

“We haven't started construction on it because it's obviously pending, but we hope to have the pathway done by the end of spring or beginning of summer.”