ELK POINT – The second Business Networking Mixer hosted by the Elk Point and District Chamber of Commerce brought forth some new ideas of ways to make Elk Point an even better place to be… and to visit.
One event that brings a huge number of visitors to the community is the annual Iron Horse 100, and race director and president Monique Poulin was on hand, along with volunteer and runner Doug Zarowny, to urge Elk Point to add some local attractions to that day to entertain the ‘pit crews’ and families that gather to cheer on the runners each autumn as the 100-mile and 100-km relay teams and runners make their way through Elk Point twice in their journey.
This year’s race goes on Saturday, Sept. 30, and Poulin said she already has 119 runners registered, including 35 100-km soloists and nine 100-mile soloists, and “I would love to have something to give their families to tell them what to do here, points of interest to see while they wait for their runners to come back through town.”
Zarowny noted that another stop where families and other spectators gather to cheer on the runners is their Fort George and Buckingham House checkpoint, and felt it would encourage more visitation during the summer that followed if the interpretive centre, which would already be closed for the season on Labour Day, could be opened for brief tours during the race.
The evening’s second speaker, Penny Fox of Community Futures St. Paul-Smoky Lake, was enthusiastic about the recent visits by Ian Hill that promote networking, both in his 100 Cups of Coffee events and the in-person and live-streamed sessions that encourage attendees to be “difference makers” and thus enhance their communities.
As part of St. Paul’s Champions for Change, Fox provided information about Communities in Bloom, which St. Paul has now been part of for four years and last year won the provincial championship. Elk Point’s new Economic Development Committee recently joined Communities in Bloom for the first time, and Fox said, “it’s not just flowers and planters… it’s the overall appearance , environmental action, heritage conservation and tree management as well.” As a registered community, Communities in Bloom judges will come to visit and generate a report that “sees the community through a different set of eyes. They start with where you’re at” and make suggestions for continued enhancement.
UCP candidate Scott Cyr was the third speaker, and told the group as the former Wild Rose MLA for Bonnyville-Cold Lake, he worked with the communities to find common goals prior to the provincial electoral boundary change. He had been the shadow minister of justice and got to work on rural crime, “and was able to get the opposition members to see we needed foundational change.” He also helped to get the Bonnyville-Cold Lake waterline, which he said had been stalled for 15 years, back on track, with the communities along the way on side, and “went back for more funding for it three times,” and also had success in achieving improvements in seniors lodges and schools in that constituency. He credited his success with “treating the NDP as human beings with different opinions.”
Cyr’s top goal, if elected, is Highway 28 and the other highways in the area in need of upgrades, “and I’d like to see all the constituency working together to fix it. If you bring hope, people will jump on the ship and you can get things done.”
