Million dollar bike park in the works for Revelstoke
The City of Revelstoke has proposed a new million dollar bike park.
The park is proposed in the city’s 2024 budget. The parks department has been consulting with the Revelstoke Cycling Association to design the park.
Revelstoke city councillor Aaron Orlando says recreation facilities like this bike park have the best “bang for your buck.”
“If you can spend that money up front, like with our skatepark which is similar, it gets a lot of use. It’s not much in the way of operational costs,” he said.
As cities around the Okanagan are working on expensive recreation centres, Orlando says this project is an example of a cost effective recreation project.
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“A hockey rink or swimming pool is really expensive to run every year, and this is just asphalt and dirt. Not to knock those facilities, we need them, but the impact on the city budget for this is going to be about $8,500 a year,” Orlando said.
Biking is hugely popular in the Okanagan, and especially in Revelstoke.
“We’re a huge mountain biking community,” he said. “It would be great to have a facility where kids could learn skills for teenagers or youth who are into dirt jumps to have a community place where people can come together, and learn some skills.”
Revelstoke is sourcing roughly $750,000 from external grants, rather than local residents’ taxes, such as $300,000 coming from the provincial Growing Community Fund.
The parks department and cycling association have lots of work left to do before the project can go ahead, but Orlando says it is an example of efficient spending on recreation.
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