The Village of Telkwa is making good on its name as an age-friendly community by conducting an assessment to see how to make it easier for seniors to get around.
The village received a $6,100 age-friendly planning grant from the provincial government late last year to carry out the Telkwa Trails Assessment and Action Plan.
“It’s in response to and continued work with being declared an official age-friendly community and we want to not stop there, we want to keep going and ensure that we’re doing whatever we can to look at things like stairs, sidewalks, establishing railings or anything we can in the village to continue to improve,” said Jane Stevenson, the economic development officer with the village.
Specifically, the assessment will look at how seniors get around the village such as walking, biking, wheelchairs or with canes and provide recommendations to make transportation easier for them.
“[We’re going to] look at pathways, sidewalks, trails and corridors from one neighbourhood to the other or from downtown to different neighbourhoods where people are moving,” said Stevenson, adding that they received letters of support from the Telkwa Seniors Society and the Telkwa Seniors Housing Society.
Stevenson said they hope to hire someone and start the new assessment in the spring and will have it ready to be presented to council by the end of fall or early winter.
Following the last age-friendly assessment in 2012, which looked at a variety of topics, the village implemented a number of age-friendly initiatives in the community, including the installation of five grit boxes to prevent seniors from falling and injuring themselves in the winter.
The village was named an age-friendly community by the province after implementing those initiatives last year.