Chamber and Town hold forum on past and future

By Richard Trenchard
President

On Tuesday July 10 Gord Armstrong hosted the Chamber as well as Citizens and Visitors to a forum called “Where to from Here?” at the town hall.
Gord began the presentation with a slide show on the past, present and future of the Rainy River Area.
It was stated that the Town has gone from 2,500 people with a thriving downtown and many businesses to the current 866.
Reasons given for this decline were; the loss of our Lumber mills, Coal docks, Water tower, Round house, Artic Cat, CN run through and others. The loss of the industrial also means the loss of commercial from 24 on 4th Street to about 8 now, but the problem of out-shopping also prevails in this area.
This leaves the majority of the Tax base to be covered by the Residential group, which will mean they will need to pay more for up keep.
Over the years the Town, its citizens and entrepreneurs have made attempts at bringing in new business to the area; some of these include a Boat making factory, a Cheese Factory and a Housing factory. We have tried but each time things just fell apart.
It was then pointed out that this community has many things going for it, The Recreation Centre and Arena, River, Curling Club, New Schools, Clinic and Hospital to name just a few.
The theme of the night then switched gears to “Where to From Here?”
As a community we need to decide our future. Should we stay this course and continue with a residential based tax population and just keep the roads patched and the water running, or is it time to take a risk and make things change.
Our town council is willing to take the risk and push to have the area move forward. Uniting with Dawson and LOW Townships and developing into a tourism area by hiring a Economic Development Officer and promoting Birding in the area and a Co-op Green house were some of the towns ideas. Council also has hired the services of Juri Berzins to begin the Downtown Revitalization project.
The floor was open then to discussion. Which then came about many great ideas,
·Creating an image and brand for our town.
·A Main Street Theme.
·Changing the Street names to match the theme.
·A new town emblem to signal our new look.
·Gateway signs at our entrances.
·Changing some by-laws (Building rules, no outside storage, no un-tagged vehicle’s on lots)
·Street murals.
·Attending Winnipeg trade shows.
·Ways to have the Park open to campers more.
·Coupon books to get people to stay in town.
·Lists of things to do in the area.
·Promoting ourselves in Toronto (Where they have our town on a brass plate in the street) and other larger centers.
·Making it easier and providing support for people wanting to start a business.
Some of the things you can do to help with our change is to compliment people for their work on the town no matter how small. The next time to see someone painting their home or business cleaning up an area, picking up garbage, sweeping a walk or anything, stop, tell them how you like what they are doing and thank them for their work, a little goes a long way. Now is the time to support our community and businesses, change our attitudes and help bring about this change.
Together we are Stronger.