CARP – A three-year project (at least), the Carp Fitness Park kicks off the construction phase tomorrow (July 8).

After two years of fundraising and planning, the Carp Fitness Project will see ground broken on Langstaff Drive tomorrow morning if the heat doesn’t delay work.

West Carleton Online has followed the project every step of the way, starting three years ago on June 30, 2018 when we met with volunteer organizer Kathy Fischer. She had been thinking about the project even longer.

“In 2014, I started thinking about this,” Fischer told West Carleton Online at the time. “There are fitness parks all around the world.”

The concept is simple, fitness parks are outdoor areas with specialized, hardy exercise equipment to give users a full workout. The park is fully accessible and will be built on the greenspace on Langstaff Drive across from the Huntley Curling Club.

Fischer and her group made a proposal to the City of Ottawa council in 2016. The volunteers linked the project with non-profit group Carp Health Access (CHA) and city staff accepted the proposal in the winter of 2017. The city agreed to pay for half of the cost and the volunteers and CHA began fundraising for the other $38,000.

In July of 2019 fundraisers reached their goal. With funding in place city staff were able to put the project out to tender and now, a year after that, work is ready to begin.

“The contractor has plans to start excavation at Langstaff on Wednesday morning unless the heat changes their schedule,” Parks and Facilities Planning’s Donna Williams told the CHA Monday (July 6). “We are close to starting.”

For Fischer, its been a long time coming.

“It seems like a dream at this point,” she told West Carleton Online yesterday (July 7). “There have been so many challenges to getting this community project started. Thanks to the Carp Health Access group for making this a reality for Carp.”