About 60 people attended a public information meeting at the Mountain View County office on March 19 to discuss ways to conserve and promote the district's many historic buildings and other infrastructure.
The county's economic development and tourism advisory committee hosted the Heritage Places open house.
Identifying and conserving historical places such as schoolhouses and offices can provide long-term economic benefits to a region by attracting tourists and new residents and businesses, said guest speaker Matthew Francis, manager of Municipal Heritage Services with Alberta Culture (a provincial department).
Alberta Culture can work with interested municipalities to survey, identify and help preserve historical buildings and other infrastructure, he said.
Department programs now in place can provide provincial money towards conservation projects, with property owners eligible for matching grants, he added.
Alberta's Historic Resources Act allows municipalities to pass bylaws designating specific buildings as historic places, he said.
The Uptowne Olds Committee has spearheaded the conservation and promotion of Olds' historical downtown district.
Murray Elliott, Mountain View Gazette publisher and a member of the committee, told guests that conserving and promoting the historic character of the district has helped drive business traffic.
“I would certainly encourage you to take the necessary steps, to embrace your heritage sites as we have done,” said Elliott. “What we've noticed is that our uptown core has become very engaged. It has brought us together and the whole community has come together.
“It's taken seven years and 40,000 volunteer hours a year to get us to this point, but we've had a lot of success. Generally buildings fill up and it's because of the concerted effort we've made.”
David Doyle, chairman of the economic development and tourism advisory committee, said committee members will be discussing the input provided by guests at last week's open house and will then meet with county administration and county councillors.
“I was quite happy with the turnout and the interest people are showing,” said Doyle. “If there is interest from the council and if our committee is all for it, then we carry it forward and start doing a survey of the heritage places in the county.
“With the grants available up to $30,000, we would definitely want to take full advantage of the opportunity.”
Conserving and promoting historic places in the county could help “spur tourist activities” across the region, he said. “It helps create sustainability.”
Although there is no set timeline for an inventory survey, he said, “We've had some hope that we could start the initial survey by the fall or it might be as late as January of next year.”
Last week's open house saw guests fill out feedback forms. Questions asked included: “Would you like to participate in planning future events to find a common vision of purpose and mission?” and “Would you like to be on a working group to pursue creating a future for our heritage places and developing our tourism/visitor destination competitiveness?”
Anyone interested in getting involved in the committee's historic places can contact Lee-Ann at the Mountain View County office at 403-335-3311, ext. 143.
