Yarmouth branding session takes place July 31; facade and streetscape projects also moving forward Tina Comeau Published on July 31, 2014 THE VANGUARD As part of an effort to revitalize the town, people are being invited to a branding workshop taking place at the Rodd Grand Hotel this evening (Thursday, July 31) at 6:30 p.m. The session will be led by Ekistics, which prepared a downtown revitalization plan years ago. While there has been some movement by the town on some items included in the plan, town council wants to do more to push the process forward. Simultaneous to the branding exercise, efforts are also moving forward on a façade program and a streetscape project. The July 31 branding session will begin with a presentation on community and civic branding, highlighting what other communities have done. “Then they’re going to break into groups and work at tables to try and define what the identity of Yarmouth is so we can move forward with some branding ideas,” explains Rob LeBlanc of Ekistics. “We’ll take that information away with us and use that to form a brand,” he adds. “After tonight we’ll probably be working directly with council and staff to create it from there. We’re hoping to have something within a month to a six-week time frame.” LeBlanc says not only is this an important exercise to go through, but it is also important to involve the community. “We’re sort of the experts in branding but they’re the experts in their own community so we want to make sure that the brand has grassroots and has ownership,” he says. On Wednesday, July 30, Ekistics held a façade session. LeBlanc says the meeting went over well. “We had probably 20 building owners. There were 16 that put up their hands and said they want to participate in the program,” he says. “There’s enough funding this year for 20 façade programs so we’ve got staff down there today that are meeting with those building owners.” A façade project can range from a complete makeover to subtle improvements to changes with signage. LeBlanc says the town is putting in up to $5,000 in matching dollars for a business that puts in the same amount through this façade project. As well, a streetscape project is in the works. It will start out first with one block of the downtown and eventually expand from there. The streetscape project involves new sidewalks, bump outs and a greening of Main Street with trees and gardens. The first block to be developed is the section of Main Street running between John and Cliff streets.
Posted on: Fri, 01 Aug 2014 13:50:03 +0000
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