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Workshops held to gather input for Spruce the Bruce program in Huron-Kinloss By Lynda Cooper, myFM Radio |
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A
small group of Ripley residents came out to take part in a workshop July 28 to
help gather input for the "Spruce the Bruce" campaign. The idea is
for each community to figure out what identity it wants to be known by, and to
do whatever is possible to show others what that is. Spruce
the Bruce is a partnership of Bruce County tourism and planning departments.
Tourism manager Chris Hughes says the county is facing stiff competition for
tourism dollars and to fight that, each community has to figure out how to
convince people to stop in its small town, and get out of their cars to shop
and spend some time. Hughes
says the first step in achieving this, is to decide whether that community is a
destination for tourists, or simply a wonderful place to live and raise a
family. He
says Ripley has already accomplished the goal of redoing its main street and
made several physical improvements. “That
put them ahead,” he says. “The only thing missing is the community’s identity –
what Ripley stands for and what it means. That’s completed through a bunch of
tools – faces, businesses, street banners – the theming of all that hard
infrastructure.” That
identity will help like-minded businesses to take up shop in Ripley and offer
products and services to attract people, and that helps start the economic
engine for wealth in this community, says Hughes. Or
maybe nothing needs to change, he says. “Maybe the people are satisfied with
being a bedroom community in which people work outside Ripley and like living
in a small town and raising their families.” Some
of the public input points to Ripley as safe and the people are committed to
their community, says Hughes. “They say it’s a beautiful place and they like
the transformation that has already taken place. It’s a great place to raise a
family because of the intrinsic small-town, rural values. And they like the
Scottish heritage of the area.” Hughes says the Spruce the Bruce program was prompted by the fact that many of the communities were starting to look tired. “Weeds were creeping up on the sidewalks, street trees were dying, benches needs to be painted,” he says. “Those fundamental elements, which create a first impression for tourists, were not up to standard. There’s stiff competition out there for tourism dollars and we have to pull up our socks if we want to continue to be one of Ontario’s leading summer destinations.” He
says all eight municipalities and the county support the program. The county
has put $60,000 aside for grants to help spruce up communities, and the program
has combined the expertise and resources of both the planning and tourism
departments.
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Kara
Van Myall of the county planning department, says the proponents of this
program hope to work with two to three communities each year. Besides
Huron-Kinloss, they are working with Lion’s Head and Tobermory this year. She
says community involvement is key to any sort of revitalization. “We need
everybody to buy into it – the municipality, business owners in the downtown,
and the public – to make sure this stays with them in the long-term.” Each
community has to come up with a unique identity and a plan, says Van Myall.
During the workshop, the participants broke into three groups – economic development,
physical design of the downtown, and the identity of the community. At
this stage, the organizers are gathering information, she says. “It will take
us a bit of time to go through it all and pull it altogether. Then in the fall
we’ll be coming back to the communities to explain what we’ve learned from all
these different experiences.” Hughes
says not all communities have to become a “destination” for tourists. They can
simply be a vibrant community where people want to live. It could simply come down to a fresh coat of paint on building facades, and strategically-placed benches and signage that is appealing to the eye. A second workshop was held July 29 at the Sports Complex in Lucknow.
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