By Melanie Jacob
Journal Editor
[email protected]
In the meantime, while it's soon to be making any big decisions, council will be looking at the programs on the fringe.
During the Chamber of Commerce's monthly luncheon talk, Humboldt's city manager, Roy Hardy, gave a speech on downtown revitalization and economic development.
The luncheon came on the heels of a presentation he gave the night prior, which focused on a budget process that for the priorities laid out in the Our Humboldt Strategic Plan.
"This planning process brings together the studies that have taken place regarding our infrastructure, the development of Centennial Park, and our long term growth strategy," said Hardy during his speech. "So far, the highest priorities align with the values of sustainability to maintain and grow our infrastructure, support active living by providing more recreation and cultural facilities, as well as to revitalize and support the downtown."
To support these priorities, the city will be looking at new financial partnerships with the residences and/or businesses that would benefit from increased development and population growth. Moreover, they'll be reviewing the 150 programs the city provides for its residents and deciding what the city can afford based on what's available to spend.
"There's only so much growth and only so much extra revenue that may come in as a result of the growth we're experiencing," said Hardy. "Some programs need to plant seeds on and grow. Some programs that we funded that aren't quite right; don't quite meet the Our Humboldt guidelines. So either we'll be revamping it or plowing it under."
While it's soon to be making any big decisions, council will be looking at the programs on the fringe.
"Going through, identifying, and looking at priorities is going to be a difficult job and you have to make decisions based on what you think priorities are in the community," said Hardy.
Specific to the priorities themselves, Hardy told everyone at the budget review meeting that they would be given 500 "Humboldt bucks," which people could use to designate the priorities they thought were most essential. Already, a study from earlier in the year concluded that people were leaning towards the construction of a field house and theatre facility.
The other priority, downtown revitalization, would be tackled a different way. Hardy said the city was looking to become an affiliate of the Main Street Saskatchewan program, which provides funding towards revitalization. Similar to the Main Streets program Hardy was involved in at his last posting, this project would aim to increase downtown traffic, fill vacant stores, and create new jobs and a new venue for community events.
"The city has applied to become an affiliate of the Main Street Saskatchewan program in order to build a made-in-Humboldt solution that will integrate physical land use planning, structural improvement, promotion, and community engagement as one of our growth strategies," said Hardy. "We look forward to engaging our investors, your chamber and the Business Improvement District (BID) to create a long term plan for a prosperous, welcoming, connected, sustainable and creative downtown."
As it stands, Hardy says the biggest challenge will be finding the right symmetry between what's important to the city and developing a balanced approach to planned growth. Hardy referred to as it "double edged sword" because while growth is good, the city's has to be able to keep up.
