(File photo/northeastNOW)

By Cam Lee

Public information meeting

Dog park, fire bylaws, heliport discussed at Nipawin info meeting

Mar 28, 2024 | 5:00 PM

Residents of Nipawin have heard from the Town about the planned dog park in the community.

The town had at least one letter sent to them expressing frustration at the lack of communication about the establishment of the dog park.

Mayor Marlon Zacharias told northeastNOW a meeting was held this week to better communicate their plans.

“There’s definitely been some concern expressed by some of the people that live in the area that is going to be used for the dog park,” Zacharias acknowledged. He said the meeting was held to give people in the area more information about why the location was chosen, and to give them a chance to feel heard.

Zacharias said after the meeting, he took some time to reflect on ways the town could improve their communication strategies with residents.

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“A lot of people were of the mindset that we didn’t listen to what their concerns truly were.”

He said there was a lot of information shared and hoped some misconceptions were cleared up. The town also outlined comparisons to dog parks in other communities.

“At the end of the meeting though it looked like everybody left with a decent understanding of what was going on, and it seemed to be fairly amicable overall.”

The dog park will be located at the Nipawin Lions Park. Zacharias said the town was looking for options for a while but couldn’t find anything else that worked. There were some areas that were privately owned, but the town couldn’t come to an agreement on a sale.

Zacharias said the Lions will also be setting up some playground equipment in the area, and that is planned to take place in May. The dog park could take some time to establish with the committee raising funds for a fence. The fence and materials will cost about $80,000, and they have raised just under $20,000 so far.

The town also talked about the new fire bylaw that bans electric vehicles being parked in a parkade. According to Fire Chief Paul Cockell, the fire department wouldn’t be able to extinguish an electric vehicle fire in a parkade. Zacharias said the fire chief told the town in other jurisdictions crews let electric vehicles burn.

“It takes over 30,000 gallons of water to put out an electric vehicle fire, and even once you suppress the fire, there’s a chance that the battery cells inside the vehicle could ignite…weeks later.”

Zacharias said it’s all about safety for people, especially those living in condos with underground parkades.

The meeting also heard an update on the Nipawin Heliport. About $575,000 has been raised for the project, with an anticipated cost of around $800,000.

The mayor said the project will be huge for patients in the region, and having air ambulance capability could mean the difference between life and death.

He still expects to have shovels in the ground this spring, with completion later this year.

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Cam.lee@pattisonmedia.com

On X: @northeastNOW_SK

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