The City of Cold Lake wants to reflect on their past while planning for their future, with a downtown entryway feature that will commemorate the role Grand Centre played in the city's history.
The entryway will mark the role Grand Centre had on the history of Cold Lake.
“We wanted to do a legacy for Grand Centre as a gateway into downtown. The contribution, historically, of Grand Centre has been pushed to the background, and we thought it would be nice to have the discussion to try to create something that would acknowledge Grand Centre in a legacy way, without necessarily dividing all of the gains we have made in becoming one community,” explained Coun. Bob Buckle at the city's corporate priorities meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 19.
It was during that meeting that council agreed to forge ahead with the design at a cost of $250,000, funding that was already in their 2019 budget.
The decision to create a legacy project was mostly to reflect on the role Grand Centre had on Cold Lake, but also to replace the current downtown entryway.
Prior to merging in 1996, what is now known as Cold Lake south was the Town of Grand Centre, while the north of the municipality was the Town of Cold Lake.
The two communities and Medley, now 4 Wing Cold Lake, amalgamated to create the city as it is today.
With a touch of railway-style concepts, the stone and steel feature will include a plaque outlining the history of Grand Centre and benches.
On one side of the road headed into downtown would be the entryway, featuring pillar-style lights, while the other side of the road would have a single pillar.
“I like where we’re going with this, because of future use. As you push further downtown, if you wanted to extend some of this… the decorative theme is reasonably classy and generic," noted Coun. Chris Vining.
The project has been in the works for several years, and has seen many revisions since the initial discussion, including the latest design which featured a colourful Grand Centre logo.
“Last time we presented, the logo for Grand Centre was too colourful. It’s now been toned down to look like an old Grand Centre logo,” explained general manager of infrastructure services Azam Khan, adding the lights installed inside of the pillars can change colour depending on the theme, using Canada Day as an example.
“We went with this concept because it doesn’t age,” he expressed.
While there's potential for the feature to extend throughout downtown, Coun. Kirk Soroka was pleased to see the city recognizing Grand Centre.
It will feature two structures on either side of the road. One will be more of an entryway-style, the other will a simple post.
"There's potential for it to move and tie that old Grand Centre together. I see some value for sure," he stated. "I think we need to stop kicking this can down the road and get along with it."
"We have the money to execute. We just wanted to make sure council is on board with the design and that we have consensus that we're ready to go," noted CAO Kevin Nagoya.
