Next year, the dream of a new Kanaka Creek Regional Park Watershed Stewardship Centre, with a little luck, will become a reality.
The final phase, about a $1-million project, will include a classroom and a small kitchen, washrooms, office and a separate storage room, allowing students to spend hours at the hatchery on 256th Street.
One feature is known as “roof-to-creek” and will divert rainwater, filter it and have it flow into the ground so it recharges the water table.
The building is known as Phase 2, while the outdoor ground preparation around the hatchery is Phase 3.
The outdoor area will have something called an outdoor classroom, additional wetlands and an interpretive stormwater feature.
The classroom will accommodate about 35 people, allowing for programming, workshops, board meetings and open houses.
“Phase 3 is exclusively outdoors,” said Ross Davies, with the Kanaka Education and Environmental Partnership Society.
Phase 1, the new Bell Irvine Fish Hatchery, was completed in 2013, allowing volunteers to move out of an old barn that served for years.
Davies gave Maple Ridge council an update about the project recently. An invitation for contractors to bid on the project is out to tender.
“We’ll wait and see what happens with the tender process. Phase 3 will definitely go ahead this year. The building probably, as well.”
Davies said funding is in place for the last two phases.
The building will be owned by Metro Vancouver parks. Part of the funding for the centre came from a bequest to Metro Vancouver from George Ross, a Burnaby resident.
Ross left $2.8 million for Metro Vancouver parks, and $300,000 of that filled a funding gap for the new classroom last February, allowing the building to proceed.
“They played a huge role. We could not have done it without them,” Davies said.
While it will be a Metro Vancouver building, KEEPS will be the premier tenant.
“It’s a fantastic situation for us because we can run our programs there and not have to worry about rent. There are exciting times ahead,” he added.
With that, KEEPS may have to rework its educational programming. Maple Ridge’s parks department could also use the centre.
“It’s the start of a new era, I guess you could say.”