A local organization has received funding to add to the pathway connecting Ganges and Central.
Partners Creating Pathways is the 2018 recipient of the Shaw Family Community Grant. The grant is one of five $100,000 grants awarded by the Salt Spring Island Foundation from the Shaw bequest over a five-year period. This year’s grant will help construct a stretch of path along Lower Ganges Road from Booth Canal to Baker roads. It is part of Partners Creating Pathways’ plan to connect Ganges and Central by a multi-use cycling and walking path by 2020.
“It’s an important community infrastructure project,” said Lesley Reynolds, vice chair of the Salt Spring Island Foundation. “It addresses safety issues because that area of road is quite dangerous. We do know people who say they don’t walk or ride their bicycles into town because of some of these issues.”
The plan is to eventually extend the current pathway from Ganges village to Portlock Park.
The pathway will allow people to travel along Lower Ganges Road safely and be a part of the proposed CRD Regional Trail route. Planning is currently underway for the pathway, and construction will hopefully begin this spring, according to a Salt Spring Island Foundation press release.
“This new section of pathway is an important addition to community infrastructure. It will improve pedestrian safety along a dangerous section of road and encourage more people to walk,” said Kees Ruurs, chair of the foundation’s board of directors, in the release. “The existing [PCP] pathways have been a great success and are used by residents and visitors of all ages, from babies in strollers to the elderly.”
For more on this story, see the Feb. 7, 2018 issue of the Gulf Islands Driftwood newspaper, or subscribe online.