*OFFICIAL STATEMENT*
Timmins Wake Park Sets Sight on New Location
Date: December 19, 2012
Written by: Johny Bonney
While the
lakes and rivers have frozen over and summer remains but a distant memory,
I'm still working tirelessly to bring a state of
the art wakeboard facility to the city of Timmins.
The idea was
originally presented to City Council on October 1st, 2012. While
everyone was very receptive to the project, concerns were raised that Gillies
Lake might not be the ideal location for such a facility.
Again, a wake park is like a floating snowboard/skate park on water wherein the rider
is pulled from shore to shore by an overhead electrical cable system, thus
eliminating the need for a boat.
So in light
of the Mattagami River Conservation Authority’s opinion that Gillies Lake would
not be the ideal host site for a wake park, the search for a new site became
necessary. Fortunately the
abundance of natural waterfront in the city of Timmins provided us with
a few more options for a location that could satisfy everyone’s needs and
concerns.
Kees Pols,
General Manager of the MRCA, and city councilor John Curley, have been very cooperative
and proactive throughout this process. By working together, two new sites have
been identified and proposed.
The Timmins
Wake Park Project is actively seeking to the White Waterfront Conservation Area
at Porcupine Lake, as well as the old Uncle Buck’s Trout Farm ponds located on
Highway 655 just passed Laforest Rd. Both locations offer their own benefits
and advantages, and would be the next best thing to Gillies Lake.
However,there is still a lot of work to be done, but we remain confident
that our efforts will come to fruition by July 2013 as scheduled. I will
continue to work very closely with the MRCA, the city of Timmins, and the
community in order to the find the best possible location for a wake park. I
invite anyone with questions, comments, or concerns to please forward them to
me directly at bonney.jonathan@gmail.com.
Thank you.
