Good news for pathway users in 2018 as the Town of Okotoks has approved snow clearing of the primary pathway network seven days a week.

Okotoks has over 85 km of interconnected primary pathways, 60 km of which will see snow clearing every day of the week.

Christa Michailuck, Parks Manager with the Town of Okotoks says even in the winter pathways are well used by students walking to school, and for recreational purposes.

"The pathways certainly do have high usage, and we do have pathway counters at various locations and we can move them around. They're just infrared counters that count the number of person groups that walk by, which could be deer as well I suppose. We do get those counts so we know our highest used pathways, they're well used seven days a week."

The maintaining of pathways was a significant priority identified by Okotoks residents' feedback on the Recreation, Parks, and Leisure Master Plan.

Michailuck says the new snow clearing plan is part of the Town's active transportation strategy.

"Active transportation is putting people at the same importance of vehicles for getting around. Treating pathways equally to roads and getting pathway snow clearing happening so pedestrian movement is also a priority."

Michailuck adds a few more storm ponds have been incorporated into the snow clearing plan this year.

"There's been two ponds added for pathway snow clearing around them, one is in Lauden Park below the community of Mountain View, we're also grooming some cross-country ski trails in that park this winter. The other pond that was added for pathway snow clearing is in Drake Landing Gardens."

Previously pathways in Okotoks were cleared only on regular business days.