Do you have questions or concerns for Mayor Logan’s response? Ideas on how to make our City an even better place to live, work, play, and do business? Email him at dlogan@cityofgp.com
A Grande Brand
The brand developed for Grande Prairie goes before Council on Jan. 25 and I am very excited to begin implementation.
The brand statement is: Opportunities Through Innovation.
The brand recommended by our consultant works with all aspects of community life from business to recreation to culture and education.
Examples of how innovation has touched every sector in Grande Prairie are plentiful.
Our General Government Services Committee received the final report on our brand from Great Destination Strategies at last Wednesday’s Committee meeting and it received positive feedback.
Here are just a few examples of innovation in Grande Prairie over the years: the furthest north radio station in the British Empire/Commonwealth was established here; Grande Prairie’s public school system was the first in the province to have mandatory music programming, starting in the early 1960s; we founded a Pioneer Museum before such things were provincially supported; Crystal Park School was on the forefront in Canada of integrating students; we successfully lobbied for City status before the community was eligible; Aquatera was the first for-profit utility of its kind; the City’s school boards, the college and the City formed the SCORES Agreement to govern facility use.
We had a Class A art gallery by the 1980s; City leaders had the foresight in the 1930s to begin assembling and controlling development in Bear Creek for a future park, and the community had a public library started by the Women’s Institute in that same time period.
Reg Isley is among many entrepreneurs who have patented and sold forestry equipment worldwide.
In fact, this region has five per cent of Alberta’s population and 40 per cent of the patents. Last fall, the Canadian Federation of Independent Business found Grande Prairie to be the second most entrepreneurial community in the country.
Resident Concerns Heard
The City has been enforcing parking on Permanent Snow Routes and this has raised concerns from residents in the Crystal Lake and Kateri Drive areas with limited parking on their properties.
Delegations appeared before City Council last Monday night and before our Public Works Committee the following day to suggest there are other ways to accomplish the goal of ensuring parked vehicles don’t disrupt snow removal efforts.
Administration was directed to examine alternative ways to address the issue so snow removal can continue to be at a high standard while the minimizing the impact on resident parking.
This goes to show that once policies are in place, revisions can be made when suitable compromises can be reached.
Vote for Grande Prairie
I encourage all Grande Prairie residents and friends and relatives elsewhere to click on http://www.monopolyvote.ca/ to cast their votes for Grande Prairie in a promotion to support the new MONOPOLY Canada-game board.
Voting began last Monday and continues to Feb. 7.
Our community is one of 65 to be pre-selected and 22 will be placed on the new game board due out this summer. Twenty of these will be through citizen voting and the other two will be wild card spots determined in a subsequent vote between Feb.8 and 21.
We can cast our ballots for three cities each day of the vote.
What a terrific opportunity this is to promote Grande Prairie.
