Why did representatives from the Heart and Stroke Foundation and Interior Health attend a meeting held to discuss roads and trails in Clearwater?
They were there because anything that gets people out walking or cycling is good for health, said District of Clearwater chief administrative officer Leslie Groulx.
Interior Health also has an interest in anything that will make local roads safer, she added.
The only other rural community that is taking the same integrated approach is in Quebec, Groulx said.
The District recently hired Opus International to develop plans for a roads and trails network for Clearwater.
The plan is to include frontage and backage roads, and highway accesses for businesses.
The community needs to look not just for today, but for 25 years or more in the future, Groulx said.
One thing they learned recently while putting the road maintenance contract for Clearwater out to tender was that the community’s many dead-end roads add considerably to the cost of maintenance.
Adding more loop roads would reduce how much snowplows need to back up, she said.