Parks and Recreation

How many parks and/or green spaces can you name in OUR neighborhood?

As an outdoor enthusiast, as soon as the weekend arrives I grab my skateboard and go for some rides and sightseeing around Rutland to uncover any uncharted territory. Following what "TLC" said: don't go chasing waterfalls, I rather go chase parks and green spaces. My focus is to promote these "newly-discovered" locations to families and youth for them to also have the opportunity to experience the innate richness of Rutland.

TIPS for SUCCESS

Parks offer more than just a green space, some areas include additional services such as: playgrounds, sport courts and tracks/trails. Therefore before departing, ALWAYS pack: an extra pair of shoes/shorts/t-shirt to enjoy everything a location has to offer.

Rutland Recreation Park

With its 14.56 hectares, it is accounted as the largest green area in the Rutland neighbourhood excluding golf courses and regional parks. I will now break down each of its individual features with as much detail as possible:

• Dog Park: Not only is there a given space for families and children to utilize but there is also an area designed specifically for pets (dogs in particular). There are some benches and tables inside available for owners to seat if they want to take a small rest. The dog park is enclosed by a metallic fence to ensure that the dogs do not run into the surrounding roads and thus making it comfortable for the owner to take the dogs off-least so that they can run freely around the park. A community board is placed inside of the dog park to promote local pet services or to update the community with important notices. The park is supported by the "Kelowna Pet Resort" (https://www.kelownapetresort.ca) Some rules enforced at the dog park are the following ones:

  1. Dogs must be kept on-leash until inside the fenced area

  2. Off-leash permitted within fenced area

  3. Dogs must be kept under control by their respective owners and any residue must be picked-up at all times and placed on the garbage bins located inside the fenced area

• BMX Park: Located on the side of the Rutland Activity Center, the BMX track is open to the public (owned by the City of Kelowna) and often used by the Kelowna BMX club for practices/lessons and races (link: http://kelownabmx.com). The following video gives an aerial look of the entire circuit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-ys8LPtnAA. There are some rules posted by the City of Kelowna that must be respected to ensure safe use of the park.

  1. Children need to use proper protective equipment such as helmet, elbow/knee pads and adequate shoes.

  2. Park is unsupervised unless Kelowna BMX club is using the premises, thus parental supervision is encouraged.

  3. No motorized vehicles, including radio controlled are allowed

  4. Track was designed for BMX bikes specifically

  5. Track gates might be locked before, during or after inclement weather to protect the track surfaces from activity.

• Hartman Community Garden: As any community garden, the collective land is normally divided into various individual plots. The mentioned garden has 35 plots and 2 wheelchair-accessible plots in total. Furthermore, there is a herb garden, rain barrel (for rain water collection), shed and a couple of compost bins. The given coordinator for the Hartman garden is Ms. Laura Shepherd (contact e-mail: hartman@centralokanagancommunitygardens.com).

• Rutland Field house: Offers women's & men's washrooms and dressing rooms. There is also a public portable washroom available around the dog park area. There is also a small water fountain in the sides of the Field House. The washrooms are cleaned by the company "Evergreen Building Maintenance" (phone number: 250-859-2336). The washrooms' hours of operation are:

  1. April 1- June 14:

     1. Weekends & Holidays: 8am to Dusk and Monday-Friday: 3pm to Dusk

  2. June 15- September 4:

     1. Weekends & Holidays: 7am to Dusk and Monday-Friday: 3pm to Dusk

  3. September 5- October 15:

     1. Weekends & Holidays: 8am to Dusk and Monday-Friday: 3pm to Dusk

For the following sports, the "City of Kelowna"(http://viewer.zmags.com/publication/e542d62f#/e542d62f/1) and the

"Urban Rec Okanagan" (https://okanagan.urbanrec.ca/regions/kelowna) offer age-specific and skill-specific programs throughout spring and summer

• Pickleball Courts: Located at the rear of the Rutland Activity Center, the 4 courts are open to the public as they are owned by the City of Kelowna. The sports itself is a combination between other racquet sports such as: tennis, badminton and table tennis. The main difference is that the pickle ball is a plastic perforated ball and the court is relatively small and thus it offers fast-pace games. The "Team Pickleball Association" offers leagues for women-men-mixed that run during spring and summer (link: https://www.teampickleballassociation.com) As a public court, there are some courtesy protocols that must be followed:

  1. Courts are open on a first come first served basis

  2. Play is limited to 1 hour when there are other players waiting for courts

  3. The "Active Living & Culture Division" (recreationandculture@kelowna.ca) reserves the right to book these courts for public lessons or special events.

  4. NO roller blading, skateboarding or ball hockey allowed inside the courts

• Baseball Fields: Each field contains a caged diamond with 2 steel dugouts (team benches) for two teams. The infield area is mainly based on dirt (sand/clay/silt) and the outfield area is based on grass. There are 'foul ball' and 'home run' zones around the perimeter to give a heads-up to the public to not enter those zones to avoid any game interruptions and to prevent any type of accidents. The "Central Okanagan Minor Baseball Association" (COMBA) hosts tournaments and practices starting from April through June 2022 (link: https://www.comba.ca).

• Soccer Fields: These four natural-grass fields are open to the public from dawn to/until dusk every day of the week and weekends. The four fields are evenly spread around the entire complex so that no interruptions can happen mid-game. All the sidelines, touchlines, end lines, penalty areas, goal areas, halfway lines are clearly marked and the goal posts and nets are well-maintained and conserved. There are several bleachers on the side of the fields to allow crowd presence. The "Kelowna Women's Soccer League" (link: https://kwsl.ca) and the "Kelowna Youth Soccer" (link: http://www.kelownayouthsoccer.com) use the fields for their official/friendly tournament matches and practice.

Apart from all the public services described above, there is a medium-sized playground located at the Rutland Elementary School (just in front of Craig Road). The playground itself has swings, 4-square, monkey bars, a tripod swing, a sandbox a climbing spider pyramid and a small, simple zip-line. RES has its own School Watch Program and access is unauthorized from dust to 7:00 am. No dogs are allowed on the playground.

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Edith Gay Park

The 4.36 hectare multi-court complex offers the public the opportunity to exercise and participate in various sports in either a recreational and/or competitive manner. I will now break down each of the park's individual features with as much detail as possible:

• Baseball Fields: Each four fields have a caged diamond with 2 steel dugouts (team benches) for two teams. The infield area is mainly based on dirt (sand/clay/silt) and the outfield area is based on grass. There are 'foul ball' and 'home run' zones around the perimeter to give a heads-up to the public to not enter those zones to avoid any game interruptions. Field 3 is specifically designed