A new rainbow crosswalk to celebrate the 2SLGBTQ+ community will be painted this year across 4th Street in downtown Castlegar.
Project manager Anne Simonen told city council this week she met this spring with the local Pride group to consider locations and what the sidewalk would look like.
They thought that either 4th Street or a place near the library would work.
Simonen said after talking with local paint suppliers and city operations staff, the crosswalk across the one-way block of 4th at Columbia was determined to be the best location.
“It’s a very visually prominent location, it’s right in the centre of our community,” she said.
It also avoided a concern of operations staff that choosing one of the crosswalks across Columbia would mean increased wear and tear and maintenance, and therefore a shorter life span.
Simonen said the one-way street will see less vehicle traffic but is still in an important location and is actually a longer crosswalk than the ones across Columbia.
The six-color Pride flag will be painted with white bars on either side.
Simonen said it will be done by fall depending on availability of paint. They will be using a type of thermal plastic paint that comes in squares and can be maintained using an infrared machine.
Castlegar previously had a rainbow crosswalk on 3rd Street.
(CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story misspelled Anne Simonen’s name.)
