This week’s Proven Results is about all the work that the community, HRM, and I did together at Penhorn Lake over the last few years to make the park and neighbourhood an even better place. It’s a bit bitter sweet writing about this because the new boundaries mean that Penhorn Lake won’t be part of District 5 once the new Council is sworn in. No matter the outcome, I won’t be the Councillor for the area anymore. During my time in office, making improvements to Penhorn Lake is something that I championed and I’m happy to be able to leave Penhorn Lake better than when I arrived, but it’s still sad to say goodbye.
Penhorn Lake wasn’t a blank slate when I was first elected in 2016. The neighbourhood has an active trails group, the Penhorn Lake Area Trails Association (PLATA), that had been working on an ambitious vision to formalize the rough connection from Penhorn Lake to the Penhorn Transit Terminal. A lot of people in the neighbourhood would shortcut across the back of the Crombie property and along the edge of the Lake/Circ to get home from the Terminal and Sobeys, but there was no formal infrastructure in place to help make that connection. The Trails Association completed a plan in 2014 that envisioned a recreational trail loop around the Lake and a formal active transportation trail from the Terminal to Penhorn Lake. It was a compelling vision and getting the trail at Penhorn Lake done was a specific promise I made during the 2016 election campaign. My now vintage postcard that went to every door in the neighbourhood with (a tulip instead of a goose above the Austin “i” and a much younger, thinner me):
I take my promises seriously! After getting elected, I got to work with the Association on the trail project. Early on, HRM agreed to take on delivery of the formal active transportation portion as the municipality was focussing on completing trails that also made bigger transportation connections. The flip side though was there was no municipal money for recreational trail building, leaving PLATA to champion the recreational loop around Penhorn Lake. Meeting with the Association on a regular basis helped me identify a bonus objective of replacing the old washroom, which was well past its best before. So I set my sights on getting that done too.
The wheels of government can sometimes turn slowly, but they do turn. I was able to get the Penhorn Lake washroom and the Penhorn Greenway into the capital budget in 2020. The washroom and the first segment of the trail were both completed that summer. Not a bad start for term number 1, but getting the trail all the way to the Penhorn Terminal would have to wait for Crombie’s redevelopment of the old mall, and there was still the recreational loop to build.
Prospects for the rec trail around Penhorn Lake were starting to improve as trail groups successfully pressured Council to once again start funding recreational trails. HRM made recreational trail funding available again in 2021, but to access it required an active trail group. The PLATA volunteers were a small but mighty band, but with the passage of time, many had moved out of the area and others had, understandably, moved onto other pursuits. This is a natural occurrence in volunteer groups and is only a problem if there aren’t new people coming along to take up the cause. With COVID as an added hurdle, PLATA had dwindled and was in danger of folding. Without PLATA, there would be no loop trail around Penhorn Lake.
So I contacted everyone I knew in the Penhorn Lake community who had been an active presence in my inbox over my first four years on the job. My thinking was that if someone was engaged enough to write me with any regularity, they might be engaged enough to join their neighbourhood trail group. My unsolicited recruitment worked and several new volunteers arrived, including an energetic chair, Mike Vlahos. Mike really went above and beyond as PLATA Chair, and was recognized for all his volunteer work with PLATA and beyond with an HRM volunteer award in 2023. A renewed PLATA received recreational grant funding from HRM, the Province, and Crombie and in, 2022, a vision more than a decade in the making was achieved: Penhorn Lake had its trail.
I’m sad to have to say goodbye to Penhorn Lake, but I’m proud to have been able to address the long-standing issue with the old washroom building and to have been able to help the community realize its vision for a trail. I feel like I’m leaving Penhorn better than I found it, and I’m very grateful to all the residents who participated in PLATA over the years. Without PLATA, a lot of this wouldn’t have been possible. A lot of the very best stuff that happens in my world happens when the community comes together around a shared project. Thrilled to have been a part of this.
Dartmouth, we do great things together!
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