Town Square Park at the top of Main Street in Westlock is due for a makeover this summer.
“The Westlock Blooms Foundation has been trying to make improvements to Town Square Park for several years,” said foundation president Shirley Toporowski.
Having recently received more than $25,000 in grants from the provincial government and CN Rail, Toporowski said the foundation now has a catalyst to make those changes.
Through the province’s Community Initiatives Program grant, the foundation received $15,000. CN Rail, through its EcoConnections program, provided $10,200.
That money will be used to plant new shrubs and trees in the park, as well as do a little landscaping to make it a mini oasis in the middle of the hustle and bustle of downtown Westlock, complete with a view of the mural on the wall of Arth’s.
“It’s just to beautify that last bit of green space downtown,” Toporowski said. “We just would like it to become a place for respite, and for people to sit and enjoy the day. When you plant trees, you create space instead of just having an open space.”
The foundation ended up receiving both grants somewhat by accident. Foundation treasurer Avril Campbell said they applied for the CIP grant first, but when there was a hold-up in the awarding of grant, they decided to submit an application for the CN Rail grant.
In the end, the foundation received both.
Both grants are matching grants, Toporowski said, meaning the foundation is required to contribute to the cost of its improvements to the park as well.
The reason why the CN Rail grant is matching is so that the company and the communities that receive the grant work together to better the community, said Jim Feeny, CN Rail’s public affairs director.
Now in its second year, the EcoConnections program is a joint venture with Tree Canada and Communities in Bloom aimed at sustainable tree planting and green space initiatives in communities along CN’s rail network.
“What it’s designed to do is to help communities across Canada with municipal greening projects,” he said.
CN and its partners received 150 applications, and Tree Canada and Communities in Bloom were the ones who evaluated the applications on the basis community involvement, how the project promoted sustainability and the plants used.
Once the applications were evaluated and ranked, Feeny said CN went through them, cross-referenced them with its rail network and selected the top 30 scores as the grant recipients.
Westlock Blooms was one of those in the top 30, and was awarded the $10,200 it applied for.
Toporowski said work on the park will get underway in the very near future, and the hope is it will be complete by the end of the summer. Any work not completed this year will carry over to 2014.
