INNISFAIL- The Town of Innisfail's administration is being asked to establish a modernization cost of an old and deteriorating westside walking trail that stretches almost two kilometres long between the Innisfail Golf Club and the railway tracks.
The issue came up at the town council’s regular meeting on July 28 when Steven Kennedy, the town's director of operations, introduced a report recommending council direct administration to produce a cost estimate for the trail connection and crosswalk at Lakewood Drive and Aspen Heights Drive for the 2026 budget deliberations.
Kennedy told council the intersection was included in the 2024 Pedestrian Safety Review report with no immediate recommendations.
“The report did identify a crosswalk at this intersection if a connection was made to the (old) trail along the north side of Lakewood Drive as an additional recommendation,” said Kennedy in his report to council.
Kennedy said in 2020 the town put in additional lighting at the intersection.
That was followed in 2021 with a speed reduction from 70 to 60 kilometres an hour (km/h) along Lakewood Drive to Highway 54, and another to 50 km/h between 56 and 50 streets.
“We are recommending completing the trail connection and crosswalk in 2026 as an operating project,” Kennedy told council. “We are looking to do a cost estimate of what that would look like and have it ready for council In the budget deliberations as a consideration in the 2026 operating project.”
While the crosswalk trail connection project was welcomed by council members as an important safety initiative, Coun. Jason Heistad wanted to know if there was an opportunity to modernize the nearby 1.85-kilometre trail, which was first constructed about 30 years ago from the Innisfail Golf Club to the railway tracks.
“It's a pretty rough trail, and I really do think whoever is on council in the near future should consider not only that trail going into the golf course but going towards the library (and) into the community,” said Heistad.
Mayor Jean Barclay added that with an Innisfail Trail Master Plan and its priorities released in 2019, the old trail straddling the length of Lakewood Drive would be on her priority list to have “rehabbed and upgraded and maintained’ back to what it used to be.
“It is a trail that is well used, and people are even more into using trails now than they were years ago,” said Barclay. “When I look at the trail master plan and the pedestrian safety review and the priorities, there's places in town that don't even have sidewalks, and how do we fit all these projects in and choose a priority?
“If we're going to do this then let's take a look at doing the whole trail and not just a piece onto basically a trail in the trail master plan that said in 2019 (it) really should be closed until it is better maintained.”
Kennedy said the town’s trail master plan was updated in 2023 and the old Lakewood Drive trail was listed as a five-year priority.
He added council had the authority to go in that direction if it wanted to.
Barclay then suggested making a motion to find out how much it would cost to fix up the old trail.
“What we have to do is support our decisions with data, and a lot of that information is available in the trail master plan and the pedestrian safety review. Let’s use those. That’s why we do them to support the work that we want to do going forward,” said Barclay. “And the (old) trail I know it would be very expensive but it's certainly well used, even in the condition that it's in.”
Council unanimously passed an amended motion for administration to find out the cost for the trail connection and crosswalk at Lakewood Drive and Aspen Heights Drive, and a separate pricing to modernize the old trail between the Innisfail Golf Club and railway tracks.
