The Village of Nakusp has resolved to look into the cost and benefit of installing multiple advertisements on highway billboards in hopes the community can attract more tourism.
Village councillors, back from this year's convention for the Association of Kootenay and Boundary Local Governments, reflected at council Monday, May 12, on wisdom gained from Kimberley April 25 to 27 and how Nakusp can better finance its economy.
For Coun. Aaron McLaren-Caux, who sat on the convention's planning committee, this included having greater transparency about village service costs, avoiding tax decreases as a short-term way to save money, and changing current lifestyles to ensure a more affordable community for later generations.
"There's ample opportunity to have these conversations," he said, with council remarking it's the first time in living memory the village has exceeded $1 million in reserve funds.
Coun. Dawn Edwards echoed one sentiment McLaren-Caux returned from Kimberley with — "The best time to plant a tree was 40 years ago; the second-best time is today" — in hopes council could plant some kind of tree Monday to get the ball rolling on driving more business revenue.
Edwards, anecdotally citing conversations with local business owners, shared concern that Nakusp storefronts struggled to keep their doors open this last year, and need the village to land on more people's radars as a tourism destination. She said even her friends and family just across the border in Alberta, for example, never hear about Nakusp outside conversations with her.
As a potential solution, Edwards proposed tabling a motion to run a simple advertising campaign for Nakusp's upcoming tourist season. However, McLaren-Caux repeatedly chimed in to encourage that council be cautious about basing financial decisions off anecdotal evidence.
He suggested the village try distributing funds directly to the local businesses that need them, rather than fully commit on Monday to an indirect solution such as advertising, without staff being able to speak yet to a plan and potential economic benefit.
Still, Mayor Tom Zeleznik shared that the village has in the past advertised local tourism with a highway billboard poster arranged by the Nakusp & Area Development Board. CAO Wayne Robinson also informed council that the village has been considering a $6,000 marketing campaign that one company had approached staff with for Nakusp Hot Springs.
Edwards remarked that taking up an offer of this kind would be great, meaning the village could pull funds from its hot spring budget instead of having to look elsewhere.
"I don't want to spend a lot of taxpayer money," she clarified. "I just want to drum up a bit of interest (in Nakusp)."
Robinson recommended for council that the advertising campaign target the shoulder season — subject to wildfire activity — and prioritize the Highway 23 route on the way to and from Revelstoke. The sign text, he noted, could be as simple as "Come to Nakusp!"
Council ultimately supported a scaled-back motion by Edwards to have staff look into signage for two existing billboards, somewhere along Highway 23 and possibly also the Trans-Canada Highway, with Robinson committing to report back by the next meeting at the earliest.
Nakusp village council next meets at 6:30 p.m. on Monday, May 26.
