When the lumber mill in Big River, Saskatchewan, shut down in 2006, a number of local people lost their jobs and the local economy slowed considerably. But as with most places in Saskatchewan, in Big River troubled times are nothing new. Instead of wallowing, the people set to work on how they could reinvent themselves as one of Saskatchewan’s premier winter playground destinations.
To help in their transformation, the town applied for and was approved for a $100,000 community improvement grant, which will go a long way to making their dream a reality.
Included in their plans are improvements to the snowmobile trails, including widening and rerouting lake trails, attaching permanent signage to help mark the trails and a few new cross-country ski trails at nearby Timber Ridge Ski area that will serve as walking trails in the summer months.
But first, said project volunteer Alfred Prosofsky, there are a number of items that have to be ticked off the to-do list before work can be started. And as Prosofsky has learned first hand, “free money” comes with its own set of rules and red tape to get through.
“To be eligible for the grant we need to first GPS the entire trail system and mark the starting and ending reference points of all the trails undergoing widening,” said Prosofsky. “We also need to mark where the new trails will be installed along the shoreline.”
That lengthy process is only just now being completed.
“Once that is done we can put the project out to tender,” said Prosofsky, “because it’s too big of a project for just the local snowmobiling club to do themselves.”
Once the tender is awarded, the next hurdle to overcome is with Saskatchewan’s environmental agency, to ensure that no harm is done to the habitat while improvements are underway.
“Even though the money is now available,” said Prosofsky, “there’s still a lot of red tape to go through.”
While the boon to tourism will be a nice byproduct of all this work, for Prosofsky the real payoff will be the level of safety that these improvements ensure.
“Some of the corners are really narrow,” he said. “With the unseasonable temperatures we’ve been having, taking the trail off the lake and rerouting it along the shoreline will just be a safer situation all around. We’re not changing our overall number of kilometres to our trails, we’re just improving them and making it all better.”
The project will also see the installation of permanent trail markers along the entire length of the trail system to make the trails easier to follow both in winter and summer.
Considering Prosofsky doesn’t even snowmobile himself, preferring to hit the trails in the summer on his ATV, it’s nice to know that all of his hard work will pay off for his hobby as well.
“They had a resignation on the committee,” said Prosofsky of his involvement in a project that will mostly benefit sledders. “I had some time on my hands, so I thought I’d volunteer to help out the community.”
And help it will. In addition to the safety upgrades, the increased tourism traffic that the town expects to see will put money right into the hands of local business owners in a number of different areas.
“This will help a lot,” said Prosofsky. “With the improved conditions of the trails for both summer and winter usage and the new ski trails, it’s just more reason for people to come to the Big River area, to see all that we have going on here. Once they’re here we know they’ll enjoy themselves.”
