NIPAWIN—Because no businesspeople are interested on being on the Nipawin Business Improvement District, Nipawin council has appointed themselves as the interim board.
“We did put out a call for people to sit on the board, businesspeople from the downtown business area. We didn’t have any responses to that,” said Barry Elliott, the town’s administrator. “We extended the deadline by a couple of weeks and that didn’t garner any interest either.”
The district’s board has been empty since its members decided to resign en masse in December.
Council's decision was made at its March 26 meeting.
“There is a need to have a board in place until such time as a final decision is made on the BID operations,” Elliott said.
While the town’s economic development officer has been carrying out the administrative duties, there’s decisions that have to be made that requires a board. One of those decisions is ending the legal status the district has as a corporation. Ending that status won’t end its status as a body of the town.
There’s still a number of commitments made by the previous board that need to be completed: the fourth phase of the town square, developing a plan for Main Street, a heritage property inventory and a downtown street fair.
As to the future, Elliott said council hasn’t closed the door on the district, but it needs to talk about the options.
“The alternatives could include rolling some of the work into one of the departments here at the town, there could be discussions about a potential contractor to do some of the work.”
Keeping the Business Improvement District could also be an option. The administrator emphasized those options are preliminary and that council could have even more before them when it comes to making a final decision.
