Although it's been a part of the Centennial Park concept plan since the beginning, the process for obtaining an LED sign has only just begun.
"We wanted to have an LED sign that would feature all the events and activities that would happen at the park," said Darrell Lessmeister, director of community & leisure services. "We also want it to show events and programs that are happening within the community."
Centennial Park covers the property on which the Uniplex and the Humboldt Collegiate Institute (HCI) currently reside. It also includes all of the green space adjacent to those facilities. The sign is supposed to be situated at the edge of the park closest to Highway 5 so that people driving by can see it.
For now, the city's biggest challenge for the sign is money. While they don't know exactly how much the sign will cost until they get the design, they do know it will be around $200,000. Fortunately, the city has already been given $50,000 by the HCI Alumni committee from their 100th anniversary reunion event.
"All the money made from the event went towards the purchase of the LED sign," said Lessmeister. "They wanted to do it as a legacy project that supports community events and endeavours."
Aside from that, the city has also been promised up to $75,000 from the Carlton Trail Regional College (CTRC) in exchange for future marketing of events and programs.
"We're contributing that money because we intend to be part owners with the city and the highschool," said Ivan Yackel, president of CTRC. "It's a one-time investment so that we'll keep on having that opportunity to put our advertisement on the sign."
Similar to any investment by the city, CTRC is hoping that the sign will generate enough revenue to be self-financing.
Thus, all three partners will have contributed funds towards this project.
"This is something we've been working on for quite a while and we've got lots of support from the community," said Mayor Malcolm Eaton. "People have expressed interest in this."
For the last $75,000, the city will be sending out requests to private industries looking for public-private partnerships.
They already know they want the sign to display at least 50 per cent of community events and 50 per cent advertising.
"We'll be selling some of it to local businesses and community groups and organizations," said Eaton. "We don't know what we'll be investing yet until we see what kind of partnerships will be created."
While it might still be too early to tell, it's certain that people and businesses are curious about the possibilities of an LED sign that's visible by the highway.
"I would have to look at costs and everything, but it's definitely something we'd be interested in," said Danielle Saretsky, owner of Curves Humboldt. "We'd have to investigate it a little bit more though."
According to Eaton, if the partnerships created still leave some of the cost unaccounted for, then the city will have to determine what level they invest in this. The expectation is that any investment would be recovered over the next few years.
"If the city is making a big contribution, we will recover our investment through revenues," said Eaton. "The sign might be well funded independent of city funds, but that all depends on the request for proposals."
Ideally, the city is hoping that the requests will create a partnership in which someone in the business of marketing will operate and run the sign. They are also hoping to have the sign up and running by summertime.
