Lake Country celebrating Highway announcement

The District of Lake Country is celebrating Thursday's big highway announcement.

Acting Mayor Noreen Guenther says they hope to be involved in the design process.  She tells us, "We do want to have our engineers work with their engineers and to keep Council up to date and to let us know what we need to do to work with the community to get those details finalized."

She goes on to say, "It's my understanding that they have a basic outline of where the road will go.  Detailed geotechnical work needs to be done as well as environmental assessments and other consultation processes."

Guenther says, "Our council has had concerns regarding the movement of hazardous materials so close to our communites' water source (Wood Lake) and one of the best kokanee fishing lakes in the Interior of British Columbia.  The western realighnment of this portion of Highway 97 will help alleviate these concerns."

While safety is the number one benefit to the bypass that will run parallel to the existing two lane Highway 97 between Winfield and Oyama, Guenther tells us the project will also be an asset to the economy.

She says, "I think this could become a world-class recreation ammenity for the province of British Columbia because to be able to open up an access of that much foreshore for the general public - I think it's absolutely amazing."

Lake Country has been lobbying for the bypass for a long time now, gathering support from the Central and North Okanagan Regional Districts as well as neighbouring municipalities.

Denise Wong - Astral Media Radio News (Kelowna)