Young people in Innisfil will have an opportunity to try out a pump track at Innisfil Beach Park this summer after town council approved the purchase of modular pump track equipment as part of a pilot project.
Last October, council turned down a staff recommendation to build a permanent BMX pump track at the park, in advance of completion of the Innisfil Beach Park Master Plan implementation study that was supposed to look at placement and staging of new amenities. The permanent pump track would have cost about $233,000.
Instead, the Innisfil Beach Park ad hoc committee has come up with a compromise: the purchase of a 50-metre track for bikes and scooters, looped to fit into a footprint that measures about 6.4 metres (21 feet) by 22.55 metres (74 feet), or the approximate size of a tennis court.
The cost would be $60,000 to purchase and install the moveable fibreglass track, with maintenance costs estimated at $3,000 per year for the two years of the proposed pilot project.
The full cost would come from the Innisfil Beach Park ad hoc committee budget.
Committee member Tanya Kampherm Martin noted that the idea was initially to rent a modular pump track for a weekend event in Innisfil to gauge public support for the amenity. But when staff looked into the costs of rental versus purchase, it made more sense to buy the unit outright.
“The benefits of purchasing a pump track far outweigh the renting for a weekend,” said committee chair James Roncone.
Roncone noted that a single event would likely attract crowds and line-ups, at a time when the town is attempting to avoid gatherings due to pandemic concerns.
It would also cost $4,000 plus HST to rent the portable track for a single weekend. With an expected lifespan of five to 10 years, the $60,000 purchase cost is actually a savings.
Roncone noted that the modular track is portable, which means that it could be moved to different locations within the community, especially if a permanent track is later built at Innisfil Beach Park.
The Innisfil Youth Connex Committee has expressed its support of the purchase, council was told, and a Goodfellow Public School student prepared a video noting that 10 out of 11 people surveyed “support having a pump track in Innisfil.”
The student rode on a similar track in a neighbouring community.
“I loved it… I can hardly wait,” he told council.
Council was responsive.
“I like this concept that it can be moved around to other communities,” said Deputy Mayor Dan Davidson, suggesting that Gilford, Cookstown and Churchill could have a turn.
However, Davidson also questioned the issue of town liability.
He was told that the liability would be no different than for the town's skateparks and, like a skatepark, the track would be “self-regulated and self-monitored,” noted director of operations Nicole Bowman.
Coun. Donna Orsatti, who had opposed moving forward with a permanent pump track, was in support of the pilot project.
“It allows the opportunity to gain feedback for the location in Innisfil Beach Park before staff come back with the location for a permanent pump track,” Orsatti said, calling it “a good win-win solution. It allows a test period to try it in that location.”
If the location is not appropriate, “there are other opportunities for locations in the town,” she said, since the modular track is transportable.
Orsatti also pointed out another benefit: “It doesn’t come out of the town’s current budget.”
“Originally, I was against a permanent (pump track) in the park,” said Coun. Bill Van Berkel, who supported the purchase of the unit. “It’s not wasted money, because we can put it anywhere.”
Council voted unanimously to approve the recommended purchase and pilot project for Innisfil Beach Park.
The modular track can be shipped within weeks, and will be installed near the tennis courts at Innisfil Beach Park, the proposed site of a permanent pump track.
Davidson asked how easy it would be to move the pump track once installed.
“Staff have undertaken to learn how to construct and deconstruct the equipment… and be able to move it without a cost,” Bowman told councillors.
However, at least initially, the plan is to keep the pump track at Innisfil Beach Park.
It is “a great centralized location,” she said.
It also reflects the fact that the funding is coming from the Innisfil Beach Park ad hoc committee.
