New Saamis Heights park ready to go

By Peggy Revell on August 4, 2017.

ohn Bulmer and Jane Zwicker with the City of Medicine Hat sit in the public plaza area of the city's newest park area, in phase 7 of Saamis Heights. The park features many unique features, to encourage people in the developing neighbourhood to go outside and enjoy their community. -- NEWS PHOTO PEGGY REVELL

prevell@medicinehatnews.com @MHNprevell

The final touches have been put on Medicine Hat’s newest park area.

“We want to create interesting spaces that people want to get out into,” said Jane Zwicker, the city’s real estate marketing officer, about the park located in Saamis Heights’s Phase 7 development, which sits behind Saamis Rotary Park, the Church of Latter Day Saints.

Unlike many other parks in the city, this new one isn’t flat. It slopes downwards from the neighbouring residential lots now being sold.

“It was sort of playing with what we had for contours,” said John Bulmer with the land and properties department. The slopes are designed with drainage in mind, but also to give children the chance to play on hills.

One feature of the park is the public plaza area, located where the park connects to the rest of the trail system.

A huge sheltered board currently shows the lots that are for sale in the development — but this will be turned into a community message board. On the other side is a large map that shows how the neighbourhood connects through trails to the rest of the city.

The completion of the park now means that the neighbourhood is fully connected with the city’s heritage trail system, said Zwicker, and people can get to almost every other part of the city using these trails.

Also in this public plaza area is permanent seating — a “gathering spot” said Zwicker, for neighbours to come out, sit, meet each other and enjoy. One detail of these seats are images and descriptions of artifacts found at the nearby Saamis archaeological dig sight.

Other seating in the park also follows this archaeological theme, with benches shaped to mimic how the different layers of soil are removed during a dig.

The park’s completion also fully connects the neighbourhood to the rest of the city’s heritage trail system, said Zwicker, meaning people can use the trails to get to practically every other part of the city.

And as always, they have chosen trees, grass seed mixes and plants that are drought tolerant.

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