Re-opening Of Scenic Niagara, Ontario Park Is Celebrated

By Doug Draper

It is almost always a good day when a park for the public is opened or, in the case of Rotary Park in St. Catharines, Ontario, officially re-opened following years of community effort.

Entrance to Rotary Park's Friendship Garden and flower-decked Rotary Wheel. Photos by Doug Draper

That was certainly the case this September 15 – one of the last sunny warm days of summer – when more than 100 local Rotarians and others gathered for a celebatory ribbon cutting for a 32-acre park that was closed shortly after it was first opened 1983.

Rotary Park, located between Pelham Road in St. Catharines southwest end and a picturesque stretch of the Twelve Mile Creek valley and Niagara Escarpment, was a retired landfill site when Rotary Clubs in the area and the City of St. Catharines entered an agreement to convert it into passive parkland.

Unfortunately, contaminated leachate from the buried wastes were discovered leaking down a slope on the site near the shores of the creek and the province’s Ministry of Environment recommended the park shut down until steps were taken to properly cap the waste.

View of Twenty Mile Creek valley and Niagara Escarpment beyond from Rotary Park

With the controls put in place, the all clear was given to prepare the park for re-opening and Rotary members and others have invested countless volunteer hours and more than $100,000 to make the place attractive for the public. A 30-car parking lot, more than 650 meters of trails, two lookouts over the valley and a transformed “Friendship Garden,” complete with a 24-foot –diameter Rotary Wheel are among the features awaiting park visitors.

The park remains a work in progress and the Rotary Club of St. Catharines continues to accept donations for installing benches, developing additional trails, planting trees and other park-related projects.

For further information on donating to the park, please contact John Travers at: jtravers1@cogeco.ca or by calling 905-227-0312