A better access road into the Esler Sports Complex is something Melynda Neufeld has wanted for a long time.
The Cariboo Regional District Area E director’s late father, Byron Kemp, tried to get a new access road built when he was a CRD director between 1999 and 2005 and again from 2011 until 2018.
Since being elected in 2022, Neufeld has been working on trying to see it come to fruition.
Neufeld lives up at Esler and said on a busy soccer weekend during a jamboree people park their vehicles on both sides of Esler Road that goes into the sports complex off Hodgson Road.
“You can’t even get an ambulance down the road at times,” she said. “It’s a safety issue and I’m very concerned for the people who are playing there.”
The complex is owned by the CRD and features the only developed sports fields in the greater Williams Lake area for soccer, slo-pitch and minor fastball.
In a report to the board, Darron Campbell, Manager of Community Services, noted participation in these leagues totals more than 2000 people, ranging from five-year-old youth soccer players to seniors involved in slo-pitch and adult soccer.
"Combined, the leagues play more than 1,500 games per season at the complex. This number will increase as league membership increases and continuous improvements are made to the fields."
In 2024, a new wheelchair accessible low mobility trail was constructed at the complex as well as an 18-hole disc golf course, which Campbell said is adding further traffic pressure to existing infrastructure.
"Based on a motion-sensor counter, the trail has had more than 1500 users since it was opened in August 2024. The disc golf course recorded 1700 individual rounds by 225 unique players in 2024."
Neufeld said there needs to be a quicker access.
“That’s what we’ve been working on for 25-odd years.”
The proposed new access road would turn off Highway 20 and is forecasted to cost $4 million.
During the May 2 regular CRD board meeting, Neufeld's request that $1 million of community works funds be allocated for the road was endorsed by the board.
Presently Celtic Engineering is working on some design drawings for the proposed road and should be ready by October 2025 so the CRD can move forward with budget negotiations for the rest of the project.
“We are going to be digging into recreation funds that we have set aside that are already allocated to some of this,” Neufeld explained. “The taxpayers, are yes of course, contributing to this as well, but we are trying to keep taxes as low as we can.”
As it is a capital project, once it’s paid for it’s paid for, it does not have to be paid for for years, she added, noting the CRD is trying to secure as much funding as it can through grants, reserve funds, and any other sourcing available.
It will have to be done in stages, because of the cost, Neufeld explained.
“We are hoping to have it user-ready by 2026," she said.
