Nipawin sees change and partnership in 2019, hopes for residential growth in 2020

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“I don’t know anybody that didn’t take some pride in the community, do some planting, or extra special things,” Harper said. “When the judges came to judge our community, there were impressed by how everything was joined together. How we’ve been trying to focus on greens and how cheerful the town was.”

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One of Nipawin’s largest projects in 2019 was the renovations of the building at the Pool at Central Park; making the dressing rooms family friendly and handicap accessible.

The pool opened for swimming season before all renovations were complete. Harper said the remainder of the project will be worked on throughout the winter months.

“You can’t talk about the pool without talking about volunteers and the people,” she said. “A group of volunteers over time conducted a Chase the Ace and donated $312,000 to the Town of Nipawin for the renovations to that pool. It’s not the town alone that has done any of these things, it’s always together with the people or other partners, I can’t say that enough.”

Two key staff positions changed in 2019. In February, Perry Trusty was hired as Nipawin’s economic and tourism development officer – a position previously held by Jayne Remenda – and it was revealed in November that Fire Chief Brian Starkell was no longer with the town. Harper said the town has received multiple applications and could hire a new fire chief early in the new year.

Looking ahead to 2020, Nipawin has a few projects on hand. Including a beautification of Main Street, the final stages of a traffic study to determine where most of the town’s accidents and injuries occur and implementing a community garden.

Another project Harper hopes to see progress is a heliport within the town, that’s being split between Nipawin and its eight Twin Lakes District Planning Commission partners (Town of Carrot River, Town of Choiceland, Village of Codette, Village of White Fox, Resort Village of Tobin Lake, R.M. of Torch River, R.M. of Nipawin, R.M. of Moose Range).

Out of everything on the horizon for Nipawin, Harper’s personal focus is to continue improving communication between the town and its citizens and look at growing the town’s population.

“I think we’re going to see some growth here,” she said. “We’re looking at the possibility of increasing the opportunity for middle income earning family’s opportunities to build homes.”

Harper hopes to re-visit Nipawin’s housing and zoning bylaws, and host an open house regarding population growth in February or March.

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aaron.schulze@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @SchulzePANow