At the Saskatchewan Urban Municipalities Association annual convention this week, the Town of Biggar for the first time was awarded a Saskatchewan Municipal Award for the innovation, planning, implementation, and extent of public engagement with the Biggar Revitalization Project!
Members of your Town Council and Staff accepted the award on behalf of the entire community of Biggar for this community-led project.
Words cannot express our appreciation to the 100’s of volunteers in/from Biggar, who went above and beyond in their efforts to fundraise for the betterment of our community. The stories from the past, the smiles on your faces and the joy you all have for our community is unbelievable. We cannot say thank you enough.
Thank you to Wayne and Ina Lou for thinking of their hometown and wanting to do something special. Another thanks to DCG Philanthropic Services for their guidance free of charge on how to properly fundraise for a project of this magnitude and for bringing the initial idea from Wayne and Ina Lou Brownlee to the Town.
Thank you to the 20 stakeholders who were invited to be an integral part of the project by the prior Town Council to identify the scope and vision of this monumental project.
Thank you to the past Town Council for listening to the idea, picking the 20 stakeholder members, approving the consultation process, vision statement, and working with the stakeholders and consultants to prepare the concept that was delayed and then shown to the public in the pandemic friendly open houses in January 2021. Thank you also to the current Town Council who took over control of the project in November 2020 and approved the overall concept, design, tender, and financing, and approved the fundraising framework policy and storefront incentive policy.
To the 500+ families who have donated to our project, thank you. In total, approximately 70% of our community has been involved in this project. This is unprecedented and one of the main reasons that the Town was selected for this award. No other award in the past has had the level of community input and involvement in such a major project.
Lastly, thank you goes out to each and every Main Street Business and to the community as a whole, THANK YOU for your patience and understanding during the four and a half months of construction last year. It wasn’t easy for anyone, especially coming out of a pandemic and you all were pushed to the limits and beyond. THANK YOU!
Proper municipal planning was to replace the water mains and service connections along Main Street at this same time, and not put millions of dollars above ground and leave century-old water infrastructure below. This was the main disruption and our choice to go to the alleys from 1st to 3rd added extra time to the construction. It was done on purpose as all of our next water and sewer projects are on 2nd, 3rd and 4th Avenues and we didn’t want to disrupt Main Street over and over again. The water line construction was the most difficult/disruptive/inconvenient component of the entire construction.
Biggar is full of champions, leaders, and great success stories. We are so happy to be adding this to our history, as it took an entire community to complete. Thank you to the Saskatchewan Municipal Awards for recognizing that in Biggar, anything is possible when a community comes together.