Callander continues making improvements to its waterfront parks, and next week, residents and visitors can bask in the shade of two new gazebos. One will be near the dock at the end of Lansdowne Street. The gazebo will be tucked in left of the dock as you face the lake. The idea to place it there is “preparing for when the lighthouse is built,” Callander’s Mayor Robb Noon mentioned, expecting people will enjoy a lighthouse view as they sit in the gazebo.
“It will be a nice place to have a picnic,” Mayor Noon suggested, and he looks forward to having the work done, which will begin either this week or next. The town expects both to be ready for public use by late next week, so a few days remain to mentally pack your perfect picnic basket.
The second gazebo will be at Centennial Park, and this one is much larger than the one at the dock. “It’s a decent size,” the municipality’s senior municipal director Ashley Bilodeau said, and can hold “about a hundred people.” Bring extra sandwiches in your basket.
The plans for the gazebo “look beautiful,” she said. “I hope all of the people will like it” once it is complete. Currently, both concrete pads are laid out for each structure, and work will begin shortly. In a perfect world, the opening of the Centennial Park gazebo would coincide with the new boardwalk the municipality is building along the shore, but the town is having a difficult time getting the concrete.
Turns out there is a concrete shortage, and “we need about 20 trucks of cement,” Bilodeau said, “and it has to be one continuous pour” to ready the boardwalk’s foundation. The odds of those 20 trucks arriving soon “are not looking good,” but the town is working to complete that project as soon as possible. “It’s coming,” Bilodeau said.
In the meantime, all the materials for the gazebos are in Callander, so those will be ready to go shortly. “I’m really looking forward to seeing it,” Mayor Noon said, noting that these improvements are all a part of the Downtown and Waterfront Revitalization Plan. Both the provincial and federal governments recently contributed around $750,000 to that project, and the town has been putting the money to work. The new playground at Centennial Park came from those grants, as will the gazebos, which ring in at $24,000 for the small, and $148,000 for the large.
See: Federal money washes into Callander’s waterfront
See: Provincial cash comes to Callander’s downtown
“Things are moving forward with the plan,” Mayor Noon said, noting that work is also underway to install a sidewalk down the right side of Lansdowne heading toward the dock. Work should be complete this summer, which will make the walk to the gazebo for that picnic all the better.
David Briggs is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter who works out of BayToday, a publication of Village Media. The Local Journalism Initiative is funded by the Government of Canada.
