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Cranbrook looks at Elizabeth Lake-Prestige connector

Council discussed the possibility of a walking path or sidewalk to continue the trail between the Prestige Inn and Elizabeth Lake

Cranbrook city council discussed the possibility of a walking path or sidewalk to continue the trail between the Prestige Inn and Elizabeth Lake. The correspondence letters were brought up during the Jan. 6 city council meeting.

In the letter, Elizabeth Lake Lodge attributes some of its summer guests' shorter stays to the fragmentation of the trails. George Freitag, from Elizabeth Lake Lodge, notes that better connections between the trails and signage would help, as would a sidewalk that connects the Prestige to Elizabeth Lake.

In his response, Mayor Wayne Stetski said the Highway 3/95 Revitalization Committee has identified a connecting trail between the Prestige Inn and Elizabeth Lake as a priority.

City staff recommended that Council receive the email correspondence from Dec. 18, 2013 regarding the trail connector and refer it to the Highway 3/95 Revitalization Committee, which is what council did.

In his letter, Stetski also advises that council should discuss it as part of upcoming budget meetings.

"In order to improve Cranbrook I guess both from a tourism perspective and a hotel perspective and a resident perspective, we should be extending a trail or a sidewalk," Stetski said. "In essence it would go from downtown to Elizabeth Lake."

He said there is already a trail that goes as far as the Prestige Inn, but there is nothing from there that leads a pedestrian safely off highway to Elizabeth Lake.

The motion was to refer to the Highway 3/95 Revitalization Committee.

Coun. Sharon Cross asked whether the city should also talk to ICBC and the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure about a safety audit of the    area.

Stetski said that the ministry is represented on the highway committee.

Coun. Denise Pallesen is also on the committee.

"Maybe we can get some dollars to do a sidewalk, which would be nice because there's nothing there now," Pallesen said.

Stetski said from his perspective it doesn't have to be a sidewalk necessarily, but could be "a well done gravel or hard surface trail; anything you could travel alongside the highway safely."