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October 24, 2012
▼ DISTRICT ACTIVITY
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Inside Parents concerned over proposal to move students The school district meets Thursday to get public feedback on a plan to address rising elementary school enrolment that would see Lake Country Grade 7 students attend George Elliot Secondary School ...............................
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Town Centre is economic developer’s first priority KEVIN PARNELL The District of Lake Country is moving forward with several initiatives to attract more business to the area and help local entrepreneurs. The district has a new, full-time staff position dedicated to economic development and also hired a consultant to aid in the development of a strategic plan for Lake Country and its business community. After four years in the district’s planning department, Ryan Roycroft has begun work as the economic development manager for Lake Country, looking for ways to
Ryan Roycroft increase business within the district. One of the first orders of business is finding out the needs of the Lake Country business community and what priorities the district council would like to set. “The hope is we can
DOUG FARROW/CONTRIBUTED
WINFIELD’S TOWN CENTRE will be one of the top priorities of the new economic development officer for
Lake Country priorities for economic development A Lake Country cow had to find out for itself if it was true, that the grass, if not greener, at least tastes better on the other side of the fence. No news whether they gave it a No. 1 or No. 2 rating. ...............................
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Some of the Economic Development Office priorities are to: • Work with Lake Country businesses and business owners to explore opportunities for growth • Attract business to the Town Centre and Main Street; • Grow tourism opportunities for the community • Work to expand and diversify the local tax base; and • Work with local entrepreneurs on new business idea development.
get a broad section of the community (for input) to help establish what the community and what council wants out of the economic development officer,” Roycroft said in a presentation to council at its Oct. 16 meeting. One of Roycroft’s first orders of business will be working with the Lake Country Town Centre area. He said an incentive package may form
the centrepiece of a revamped Town Centre with “a marketing program getting more Town Centre information out there,” said Roycroft. Among the other initiatives the Lake Country economic development manager has undertaken is the development of a commercial and industrial database, a business license database, and a formal Lake Country investors’
guide that would be used as a marketing tool. The district’s web site will also have a section dedicated to economic development with more emphasis placed on statistics and demographics. Roycroft says the district needs to be more proactive. “This is a fairly broadbased PR campaign to get the message out to the development community,” he said. “We
need to give Lake Country more of a presence than it has had in the past.” The report from the economic development officer drew a positive response from council. “I think this has been a big step forward for the community to have someone in the position of economic development,” said Coun. Penny Gambell. newsroom@lakecountrynews.net
Repairs for Oyama Hall; agriculture tourism accommodation Lake Country council approved a $10,000 grant for the Oyama Community Hall at its last meeting on Oct. 16. The money will be used to fix a variety of issues with the hall including repairs to the
building’s fire exits and the foundation of the building. The society that runs the Oyama Hall has already done lots of work to the area including repaving of the hall parking lot.
IN OTHER COUNCIL NEWS: • Council has created a new zone to deal with accommodation on agriculture lots. Called agriculture tourism accommodation, the zone will deal with farmers who have secondary accom-
modation on their properties. Currently there are about 10 properties in Lake Country that have been approved to have accommodation on their farms, under old rules approved by the district.
Those farms will be governed under the old rules, but new farms will soon have to have any secondary accommodation approved under the new Lake Country zone. “We’re trying to ensure accommodation
(on farm land) happens within Lake Country in a sensitive fashion,” said Lake Country director of planning and development Mark Koch said: “The way things SEE COUNCIL A7
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