INNISFAIL -- A draft agreement between the town and Innisfail & District Chamber of Commerce has been completed to create a huge electronic digital message sign at the eastern gateway into the community.
The new sign at the intersection of 50th Street and Highway 2A could be 20 feet tall and nine feet wide and have a startup price tag of up to $100,000, a cost that will be split evenly between the town and chamber. Most importantly for both parties, the project at the intersection near the McDonald’s restaurant is being heralded as an exciting new focal point for welcoming visitors to the town and providing unique, cost-effective advertising opportunities for the community and local businesses.
The draft agreement for the new digital sign was presented to town council on May 6 at its Agenda and Priorities Meeting. It's expected final approval will be ratified by council at its regular meeting at the end of May or in early June. After the agreement is approved, construction and installation work for the new sign will go out to tender, with an anticipated completion date by September or at least before the winter.
"I am pleased with it. It has been in the works for a couple of years now. I am happy that we have made an arrangement with the chamber to operate it and look after it. The town doesn't really want to get involved in that part of it," said Mayor Jim Romane, adding the sign will be a welcome improvement to the longstanding visual dreariness of the town's main eastern gateway. "When I came on council I knew we had to start sprucing up these entrances into town. We spent eight or nine million dollars on downtown revitalization and you come to the (gateway) corner and it's all industrial. It does not present itself well."
Through a report presented to council, the draft agreement proposed the chamber would operate the sign on behalf of both parties, and pay for monthly utilities and internet and provide bookkeeping. The draft agreement also proposes the chamber receive all income from the sign as the organization is handling all of the digital sign's management and operations. It is also proposed the town receive advertising and associated copy design costs at no charge. The town will manage its own content, as well as community event notices.
Businesses will be charged for advertising. Those revenues would be used to fund the operation, maintenance and future replacement of the sign. The draft agreement is proposing advertising prices for businesses start at $200 per month, which includes a $25 setup fee to rotate through an up to 20-ad cycle on the digital sign. There is also an extra $100 fee for any artwork required for a digital ad.
The draft agreement additionally proposes that advertisement of events for local sports and community non-profit groups be provided for free.
"We are extremely happy with the outcome, obviously," said Mark Kemball, co-president of the chamber, of the deal worked out with the town. "We felt it was important that if we are going to generate revenue from the sign that we control all aspects of it, both our content and the content coming from the town.
"They would obviously approve all content but we will control putting it up, taking it down and making sure it's looked after," he added. "We collect no money from the town for that, only from the businesses."
Mostly though, Kemball believes the digital sign will be a welcome benefit for the community and local businesses, and add pleasing aesthetic value to a part of the town that has long needed it.
"I am pretty excited because I think it just makes that first corner when you come into town now very attractive with a gateway sign and the opportunity for businesses who may have not had the chance to promote their business," said Kemball. "And having that corner with a nice gateway sign, and without a hodge-podge of signs there, and that everything can be on one community board, whether it is the Innisfail Eagles playing that night or an open house for the new waste pickup or anything that is happening in the community, will all be focused on one spot on a very well done sign."
