Residents of the Townsite neighbourhood are a dedicated bunch, determined to improve and beautify where they live; and they are in it for the long-term.
After six years of proposals from the community group Townsite Ratepayers Association (TRA) to City of Powell River, a street-lighting project finally came to fruition this past week, lighting up a once dark, well-used walkway.
"This lighting project is about five years in the making," said TRA president Will Van Delft. "We asked for an upgrade to street lights on Ash Street and the [Powell River] Community Forest grant gave us $100,000 to do that."
The original project, proposed in 2018, was to see street-scaping improvement along Ash Avenue from Henderson Park down to the Rodmay Hotel, then onto Yew Street and Walnut Street from Dwight Hall to Henderson House.
"Then it [the project] sat for a couple of years," said Van Delft. "Finally we asked to transfer the funding to do the sidewalk lights on Manager’s Row and this was approved."
Manager’s Row refers to the Arts and Crafts-designed heritage houses built by the Powell River Company (for managers of the old mill), beginning in 1910, that line Marine Avenue.
In early April, 10 LED-sensored street lights were installed on Marine parallel to Triangle Gardens. The lights are designed to reflect Townsite's Historic District designation.
Previous to the lights being installed, anyone strolling down Marine from the Lawn Bowling Club into the neighbourhood would have to walk in pitch black.
"The Townsite community is very happy," said Van Delft. "Now we need to start plans to extend these lights down to the Patricia Theatre."
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