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New downtown festival secures town support By STACEY ROY sroy@perfprint.ca
EMC News – The message of living well will take to the streets of Smiths Falls next summer when the Downtown Business Association (DBA) hosts the ¿rst Healthy Living Festival. Scheduled for June 22, 2013 the Healthy Living Festival was made public at this week’s special committee of the whole session where representatives asked for $5,000 of town funds in addition to in-kind support of the same amount. “To operate the festival successfully for the ¿rst few years it’s going to take a greater amount of funds,” explained Amy Hogue, DBA coordinator. The DBA is investing $5,000 of its funds into the venture and hopes to leverage additional funds through a Celebrate Ontario grant to be submitted Friday, Nov. 23 for an overall budget of $15,000. The festival itself would build on the town’s demonstrated efforts to encourage a healthy lifestyle to residents
while attracting out-of-town attendees. Organizers will be asking for Beckwith and Main Street West to be closed off to traf¿c during the festival so that events can be held in the core. “We envision an event which centres on healthy living concepts,” said Maire Hogan, DBA chair. The festival will incorporate local businesses through the display of various exer-
cise options, food and nutrition products and ¿tness wear. The ¿rst time festival will take place the same day as the annual Triathlon event to capture those participants, but Hogan said she believes the festival can draw people from the entire Ottawa area and Seaway region. “This festival has great potential for success,” Hogan told councillors this Monday.
Coun. Dawn Quinn echoed these thoughts, saying tourism is the biggest economic driver in the town and needs to be supported at every turn. While acknowledging the real ¿nancial constraints the town ¿nds itself in going into the 2013 budget process, Quinn posed one simple question to her peers when urging them to take a chance: “We have to ask ourselves how bene¿cial is this to the
town?” Mayor Dennis Staples was able to suggest a compromise between the DBA’s $5,000 request and councillors’ comfort level with dedicating funds in such short notice. A commitment to ¿nd $2,500 in next year’s existing $13,500 festival budget was formally approved by council this week to allow the DBA to include the town’s support in its Celebrate Ontario grant
project. Town staff noted that all of the $13,500 in next year’s budget is allocated to various projects in town including $9,000 for the Smiths Falls Canal and Railway Festival. With this approval of $2,500 the draft allocation numbers will have to shift to accommodate the late entry. “Some groups may not be happy and maybe one more will be happy,” said Staples.
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service. The mayor expects the county ¿nance committee to have passed its budget at the Wednesday, Nov. 21 meeting with an item to relocate the ambulance station in Smiths Falls from Maple Street to another site. “There may be an opportunity to partner in terms of a joint project,” the mayor said. Currently, discussions are in the beginning stages so neither the town nor the county service was able to say if such a partnership would result in an extra addition to the Smiths Falls municipal complex on Beckwith Street. James McIsaac, chief manager of the Lanark County Ambulance Service said the county has identi¿ed a need to replace the Smiths Falls station in the future. Rick Hannah, emergency services coordinator for the county con¿rmed the Smiths Falls station is the next one to be replaced within the system. Over the last few years both Almonte and Lanark Highlands have received new ambulance stations. “We’re currently renting the building and we’re kind of cramped in it,” Hannah said. The bay currently holds three vehicles in a two-bay garage. Hannah said there are no immediate plans to leave, but that the county and the town have begun discussions to see if a partnership is feasible. As an aside, Hannah noted the county ambulance service is looking to ¿nd ef¿ciencies in many ways, including looking at changing over their ambulance body from a Ford model to a Mercedes. Service testing of this new model has shown reductions in fuel costs to be as much as 50 per cent. Both items will be coming back to Lanark County council for further discussion.
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