Construction of a new dog park in Heritage Lakes will be delayed for about a year because AltaLink plans to raise the power lines in the area sometime in 2011.
Designs for the Levasseur Road dog park are complete but construction will be delayed until sometime in 2011, said Monique St. Louis, director of recreation services for the city.
It wouldn’t make sense for the city to begin work then have it damaged by the utility’s project, she said.
“They didn’t want us to do any work out there until they had done their work,” St. Louis said. “It didn’t make any sense from a sequencing perspective.”
She thought about looking for another location for the dog park but decided against it.
“We’d built up considerable momentum on this,” St. Louis said. “Considering the public consultation and the support for the project, we thought it best to hang onto the existing project and just delay it.”
AltaLink is working through a design process and isn’t sure when it will complete its work, said spokesperson Megan Wolfinger.
There are two lines that intersect the park. One is on wooden poles and the other is on steel lattice. The wooden poles will be replaced with longer poles while the steel structures will be jacked up so that leg extensions can be added to the bottom, Wolfinger said.
The lines are at the correct height for a park but need to be higher to accommodate the proposed parking lot, she said.
AltaLink was already planning to raise the lines next year because this will allow the company to increase the capacity and boost the system’s efficiency, Wolfinger said.
Mayor Nolan Crouse has been aware of the delay for the past few weeks and isn’t concerned about it.
“This wasn’t a time-sensitive project. It was one of these issues of continual improvement that you try to implement,” he said.
The dog park will cost $140,000. The city plans to recoup the costs over time with a $10 surcharge on dog licences.
The final design for the Levasseur dog park was originally slated for the end of August, but this will now be shared with council at a later date, St. Louis said.
Her department is continuing to work on a plan to build a second dog park in Lacombe Park, with concept development to begin in December or January, she said. These are expected to come to council next summer.
