Brave Park, the 3-acre public park located in Lakewood, is expected to be completed next month.
Lakewood of Strathmore's Director of Sales and Marketing Scott Silva said the project has been running smoothly, so much so that he believes the park could be open by mid-September. With everything in stock, Silva expects there won't be much in the way of potential delays, so even if the mid-September goal isn't reached they'll "definitely by the end of September be done."
Among other things, the playground construction has seen great progress, and the pathways have been identified. After that, Silva said things like the pickleball court will be installed, plus what he called "the big draw" of free Shaw high-speed wifi.
"We're going to be running hardware that is similar to what you see in large event areas or stadiums, and you will not have to be a Shaw customer, so this is not a Shaw Go point, it is fully open Wi-Fi," he said.
Brave Park, along with all the Lakewood development, has been an ongoing huge development, so seeing the park come together has been extremely satisfying for Silva and the development team. He and the team are particularly excited to see their hard work finally come to fruition for the community to enjoy, as Silva says that's what the park is all about.
"The biggest gratification is going to come the first time we get to see kids go down those slides and use all that equipment. That playground is going to mean so much for the community, but even just the fact of a gathering place, we're going to be holding events (for the community)."
Beyond an opening ceremony, Silva said the team is planning other events like movie nights, Remembrance Day ceremonies to honour and support our Legion's veterans, and more. Silva and the Lakewood team emphasized that the park is for everyone to enjoy, so it's not closed off just to people who live in Lakewood.
The name "Brave Park" was chosen as a way to pay tribute to all those who serve and make our community what it is. There will be a monument in the centre of the park to celebrate this.
"We wanted it to be a commemoration to our fallen soldiers, our fallen officers, all of our frontline workers, and part of our local and regional Indigenous past. We really wanted to signify all those that we've lost and all those that came before us and really show the courage and bravery that all of those people had, and all the current service members do in providing for our community."
With the park's completion only one month away, Silva wanted to recognize everyone who made the project possible and who will continue to work hard to see the project through to the end.
"A big thank you to everybody involved, all the teams, all the engineers, the entire development team, our project management. Big thank you to Connect First, one of our local regional banks, but also our finance team that we work with. So just a big thank you to everybody, this isn't possible without a team hard at work."
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