Plympton Wyoming council has approved a transfer that will see Highland Glen Conservation Area become a municipal park.
Chief Administrative Officer Carolyn Tripp said the town asked to take over its management from the St. Clair Region Conservation Authority.
"This came to light due to the issues with the boat launch," Tripp said. "The boat launch is in disrepair. The cost to repair that boat launch is quite extensive and it's beyond what the conservation authority, in my understanding anyway, is wanting to get involved with at this point in time."
Tripp said the town will be working to determine the best way forward.
"Whether it's repaired, replaced or something different. The price tag for doing it may be quite extensive. We are working on that right now, so I can't say exactly how much at this point in time, but it may be quite extensive, so we'll see what council decides to do. In all likelihood there will probably be some sort of public process to determine what we do with the boat launch, what type of repairs we do, and that sort of thing."
Tripp said they can do the prep work even though the land transfer will have to wait for final approval from the province, similar to McEwan Park.
"With McEwan, that land has not yet been vested in our ownership yet, even though we've been looking after it for a few years."
Tripp said building a boat launch really isn't in a conservation authority's mandate.
"When they're considered local parks, which McEwan and likely Highland Glen would have become if we hadn't taken it over, then 90 per cent of the costs are on the local municipality anyway. If we're going to spend the money ourselves to do the work, I believe it is the preference of our council to have more of a say over what happens."
Tripp said the conservation authority will finish safety improvements, to railings etc., that had already been budgeted for in 2022.