Six new lights have been installed in Boitanio Park to help illuminate walkways and make the park a safer place.
A collaborative effort involving the RCMP, the Williams Lake Rotary, Citizens on Patrol, Community Policing and the City of Williams Lake, the new park lamps sit between the skatepark and the public washrooms. Community Safety Manager Dave Dickson is a vocal advocate for these lights and is happy to see them finally up and running.
He believes these lights will help attract more people from throughout the Williams Lake community to the park to practice safe rest and recreation. The lamps are a positive addition to the park and, Dickson said, it would bring more positivity to the park inherently, to counter the perceived negativity of the place.
“If we want to make this park better, we have to use it more. Negative people don’t like positive things, when negative people are here and they’re seeing positive things, they’ll move away,” Dickson said.
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Dickson said that there are activities that can be done year-round in Boitanio Park that these new park lamps will help shed light on. Everything from bike riding, eating lunch to sledding and late night walks are all things that he feels more people in the community should choose to do in the park.
There are plans to eventually install lamps of similar designs to these all around the park’s paved walkways, something that Dickson would like to see in the future.
“Scoundrels don’t like light, they like to do evil things in the darkness and they can do that better in the darkness than in the light,” Dickson said, “Positive use is what we want, the more positive use we can get the safer it will become.”
The money for the project came from the various organizations, with Citizens on Patrol member Bob McIntosh using money raised from the RCMP Musical Ride to help pay for the lights. According to Dickson they also used a $10,000 grant from the Integrated Community Safety Initiative.
This was together with $5,000 from the Rotary, $10,000 from the RCMP courtesy of Insp. Jeff Pelley, $2,500 from Bob Sunner, with the remaining balance provided by Community Policing, for a grand total of $23,000.
First turned on four weeks ago, Dickson said he and his fellow collaborators are very happy with how the project went and turned out. The lamps are designed to prevent roosting by birds during the day, while at night they give off a soft ambient light, rather than a glaring bright one of older models.
Insp. Pelley agrees with Dickson that the lighting will help increase safety while reducing crime in the park.
“With visibility comes a safer environment and overall the park is safe. We do have individuals here that are some of our social chronics and we just want to make it more enjoyable here later in the evenings as well as make it lit up for families along the path,” Pelley said.
He said the placement of the lights is not in response to any specific crime stat, but instead is designed to increase the overall safety of the park. Pelley believes the lamps will allow families with strollers and young children on bicycles more time to enjoy the pathways as the sun sets.
“It’s a community-driven initiative and we’re very supportive of any type of improvement that not only enhances visibility but is also aesthetically pleasing,” Pelly said.
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Mayor Walt Cobb said that he hopes the successful installation of these six lamps is only stage one of a larger project. One day he’d like to see all the paved sidewalks around Boitanio Park ringed by and lit by these lamps.
“It’s great for our community but also gives night light and something else happening in the park,” Cobb said, “Safety for the park was the big idea for this project, just to get as much light in there as possible.”
Cobb also said he feels the lights will be particularly valuable in the winter time, providing safe well-lit walking opportunities in the evening or night that are otherwise unavailable, due to the season’s short days.
patrick.davies@wltribune.com
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