Lillie Ave. has seen a flurry of activity over the last few weeks as work under the street has been completed and above-ground work has begun.
A recent status report on the Make a Big Splash FF Facebook page says: “Splash park equipment is well in production and scheduled to be here in late June as originally planned. The old play equipment and sand is gone from the park. All the underground work is complete at the roadway, including the new sewer and water services to the property line. The parking lot is 90 per cent complete. MTO has approved the traffic signal installation on the highway in principle”
Interim CAO Travis Rob is very positive about how the work is all going.
“Things are coming together really well,” Rob said. “We removed the existing play structure and the existing protective surface. I was in there [last Thursday] and we were laying out where the washrooms are going to be, where the splash park is going to be, where the pump house is going to be, and how we’re going to get power in there. So we’re working on all of those things.”
As the playground and spray park aspects come together, Rob says they hope to have materials on site for both so building can be done at the same time.
The traffic lights that will be installed at the intersection of Lillie and King’s Highway have been ordered. The system will be on-demand so the lights only change for a pedestrian crossing or if a car is waiting to exit Lillie.
“The traffic signals, controllers and heads have been ordered and I’m finalizing the information for the poles and arms, so I’m hoping to get those ordered [this week],” Rob said.
Rob also added that there are other aspects of the park rehabilitation that the committee is fundraising for.
“We haven’t quite met our fundraising target yet,” Rob said. “So that piece is still happening. We’re obviously going to move forward with the things we can afford, but there are still some outstanding things we want to do, that we’re looking to finalize our fundraising efforts towards so that is still a piece that’s outstanding. There is still some money coming in here, there and everywhere, which is great. But, I don’t want to make it seem like we’ve hit our fundraising goal, because we’re not quite there yet.”
