LETHBRIDGE- When you find yourself in the Lethbridge river valley it can sometimes be easy to forget you’re in the middle of a busy city.
Heidi Maldaner and her daughters enjoy the piece and quiet of Indian Battle Park on a regular basis, taking in some of the new upgrades after the city rebuilt and cleaned up after flooding in 2013 and 2014.
“We really enjoy the new playgrounds,” Maldaner said. “We just came from the Helen Schuler Nature Centre and checked out the improvements there – everything was wonderful. You can see lots of upgrades and you can tell it’s been redone recently.”
“The water was pretty high – it covered some of the paved pathways that are back into the park,” Chris Witkowski with the City of Lethbridge, said. “It was a pretty extensive flood, one of the worst ones we’ve had in quite some time.”
Witkowski says the city has used grant money to get the river valley cleaned up and to make it pedestrian-friendly.
“All kinds of sediment that the river picks up gets dumped off in the river valley so the cleanup can be pretty extensive,” he said. “All the way from your basic sediment to rocks and trees.”
The city is also working repairs in Pavan Park after overflowing banks washed away pavement a couple of years ago.
With the flood damage cleanup almost done, Witkowski says the city is now looking to expand its pathway network.
“The latest path is the one going from Tudor Estates down to the river that goes through the coulees and cuts over to the Country Club. In 2016, we are working on a new pathway that will run from Heritage Heights, all the way over to the Elizabeth Hall Wetlands on the west side.”
When that path is finished, there will be a complete loop for the University of Lethbridge along the river to Bridge Drive and back along University Drive.
You can see a map of all Lethbridge paths here.
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