Spirit Square Funding Announced

Friday, May 09, 2008 03:30 PM

Mayor Colin Kinsley, Deputy Premier Shirley Bond, MLA John Rustad and Premier Gordon Campbell ( photo Opinion250 staff)

PRINCE GEORGE - The Veteran's Plaza Spirit Square will transform the lawn area in front of Prince George's City Hall into an urban plaza designed to attract people and activity year round with the addition of a First Nations Spirit Gate and upgrades to the Cenotaph.

Premier Gordon Campbell made the annnouncement today, along with a Provincial contribution of $500,000 from the Province's B.C. Spirit Squares program.

"The upgraded plaza will give Prince George residents an excellent venue to celebrate this city's First Nations past, present and future, while at the same time honouring our veterans," said Premier Campbell. "It is also the perfect location for the community to commemorate BC150, the 150th anniversary of the founding of the Crown Colony of British Columbia."

Veteran's Plaza will encompass the front (north) side of City Hall. The upgrades will improve the existing front lawn area, currently used by the Legion Branch No. 43 for their annual Remembrance Day ceremonies and a variety of special events such as Summerfest.

The project will retain the park's signature elm trees and feature a 'Spirit Gate' to highlight the cultural and historic contributions of First Nations to the community, as well as amenities such as benches, rest areas and landscaping. When completed it will support public art, and provide accommodations for cultural and art programs.

"This Spirit Square will celebrate the City of Prince George through various themes and elements and reflect the unique character of this community and the important role our veterans have played," said Mayor Colin Kinsley. "The upgrades will make this square 'the place to be' for special occasions such as community celebrations and commemorations making the plaza more inviting for residents and tourists alike."

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Posted on Friday, May 09, 2008 03:30 PM in News by 250 News

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Comments

Posted by: robichal on May 9 2008 7:01 PM

Tourists? What tourist?

Posted by: lmorg on May 9 2008 7:27 PM

OH how nice. More drunken homeless people to pick up.

Posted by: flowerpower on May 9 2008 8:31 PM

why can't prince george do anything that is not about natives

Posted by: lunarbase on May 9 2008 8:40 PM

This is going to cost $500,000 ? They could have gone a long way in making a good location for the farmer's market and other activities over by the court house with this money instead.

Posted by: Chester on May 9 2008 9:06 PM

$500,000 to create a "Spirit Square" "Urban Plaza"???

With the problems we have in our community, we are going to transform our lawns in front of city hall into a First Nations Spirit Gate?

Do we not have more urgent needs for this money? Who asked for this money? Who is responsible for handing it out? Neither one will get my vote next election.

Good Lord, we need work, jobs, opportunities? Not more monuments! Chester

Posted by: Harbinger on May 9 2008 9:11 PM

Lots of level places to sit their Listerine bottles so they don't fall over hopefully was incorporated in the plan. Gotta keep em' happy. Don't want them messing up the Olympics, I guess.

Posted by: lunarbase on May 9 2008 9:19 PM

Actually I miss-read the announcement. It is actually a million ! 500,000 from the province and $500,000 from the city.

What a waste I am sorry to say.

Posted by: YamaDooPolCat on May 9 2008 10:09 PM

The grass and cenotaph were fine the way they were. What's the big rush to wipe out what our pioneers settlers in PG built? Plant the Cameron street bridge on the front lawn of the city and call it a day.

Posted by: acrider54 on May 10 2008 6:30 AM

Waste of money! Fix the potholes! I for one would enjoy a better road, I doubt I'm going to visit "Spirit Square" and what tourists? Tourism is going to be our 2nd most important industry to be in the dumpster what with high gas prices and Campbell's carbon tax. Leave it as is and save the $$$ for more important things.

Posted by: northern taxpayer on May 10 2008 7:05 AM

can you see the strings on and between these puppets what a show, sucking up to the voters cause they don't know what else to do , give me a honest dictator any time, this is sickening.

Posted by: Andyfreeze on May 10 2008 7:36 AM

What stupid waste of tax payers money!

Posted by: robichal on May 10 2008 7:58 AM

No one seems on board with this ridiculous monument crap! there should be a public vote for these things. Our roads might as well be gravel, FIX the roads - this is NOT rocket science!!!

Posted by: bigdog on May 10 2008 7:58 AM

"why can't prince george do anything that is not about natives"

Ditto on that

"Fix the potholes! I for one would enjoy a better road"

. . . And ditto on that too!

Posted by: Runner46 on May 10 2008 9:06 AM

I work down there and like the walk into City hall. I look forward to the upgrade that will enhance the area.

As for the drunks, I don`t have an answer but I do remember them in the same general area of the Cenotaph in Vancouver fifty years ago. Are they still about?

Posted by: travism on May 10 2008 9:53 AM

I have to agree with the majority, the economy is in a slump at best, the roads are in shambels, we need to do something about the river, a trail system would be nice, etc, etc. Yet we spend the money on a Spirit Garden. What a waste. What would happen if the City/Province was to fund a Million Dollar Christian monument and put it in front of City Hall? People would be pissed and it is the religion of the majority.

Posted by: govsux on May 10 2008 10:11 AM

Want to pay respect to our veterans and our war dead, we've got some new ones now, how about everyone shutting down on Remembrance Day. At the very least the minute of silence should be observed in malls and workplaces so we can reflect on our sacrifices and salute lost ones.
Thanks to all who gave their lives.

Posted by: YamaDooPolCat on May 10 2008 5:44 PM

Funny how you get used to something to the point where you hardly notice it anymore. I drove by the city hall this morning and took a good look at what is there, the big trees, lawn and some paved paths and the monument. It actually is really nice. It is a shame all that will be turned into some junk yard of concrete and paving stones. Just a case of you don't know what you have, until some artist gets a hold of it.

I still can't get over how ugly that thing across from city hall is - you know the artwork that looks like a chicken that was killed by stretching it out on strings tied to a couple posts. I keep waiting for that chicken to rot and fall off the strings. Is that why the flags were at half mast the other day?

Posted by: owl on May 11 2008 1:47 AM

"The grass and cenotaph were fine the way they were."

I agree. It is a nice civic green space. I would do very little to spiff it up.

Here is the proposal call

http://www.city.pg.bc.ca/city_services/supply/2008_documents/P08-08.pdf

Looks like they will do the south side as well. That DOES need some work on it.

Posted by: YamaDooPolCat on May 11 2008 8:10 AM

This site was the first I heard of it as posted on May 09. The first meeting of the bidders was on May 06. So this was a done deal even before I even read it. The funding announcement brought the project to everyones attention that is all.

That area of town needs more parking anyway. Mow it down, pave it and paint it green.

Posted by: owl on May 11 2008 9:08 AM

With a green parking lot, we have to limit the parking to colourful red, yellow, pink, etc cars so that they look like flower beds.

Maybe we can allow a few grey cars. They can be like the bolders in a rock garden.

-------------------------

This was as good as a done deal over a year ago. The fudning was made available to the max of $500,000 to all communities in BC. We are late comers.

I think the City was trying to figure out where their "spirit" square was going to be. At one time I thought it was going to be in front of the new RCMP building, but they likely hit a snag there with timing.

Why they did not take the money and improve the Civic Centre square is beyond me ..... again..... spreading out the bounty far too much for a city this size.

from October 2006 .....
http://www.spiritsquares.gov.bc.ca/docs/Spirit_Squares_Program_Guide.pdf

Posted by: YamaDooPolCat on May 11 2008 12:44 PM

Possible. Could be the city had trouble finding a spot to spend the money.

The other end of George Street where the Simon Fraser monument is would have been a better place to give tribute to the "spirited" locals that have had too much spirits. A million bucks worth of work would really make that area attractive to all types and widen some peoples options for a place to hang out.

Posted by: Palopu on May 11 2008 4:57 PM

You all miss the point. The original funding was to put something in front of the new police station. When it didnt meet the criteria they decided to put it front of City Hall which did meet the criteria, so you can see there was no thought given to this project, just another excuse to spend money stupidly.

Another million down the hole 500,000.00 Pr George taxpayers money. Thank God and Greyhound he'll soon be gone.

Posted by: owl on May 11 2008 11:10 PM

I am not quite sure how you figure I missed the point. Not that that matters.

The city definitely did not give good thought to this project. I find that there are many times when this city does not put good thought to funding requests. There have been a few big ones where they were simply turned down - the original request for Cameron Street Bridge funding, raising of River Road funding, Patricia Blvd industrial route funding come to mind as recent ones which were, for my point of view not well thought out.

It is nice to see that there is someone who can see through these schemes.

This spirit square process was made avaialbe in the Fall of 2006. It had two stages that could have been taken advantage of. The first was up to $50,000 to talke care of planning where and conceptually how the funds could be used. Sounds like a reasonable thing to do to me. Involve the community and get people to support it.

We have a farmer's market group, for instance looking for some help to keep a part of downtown alive at least on Saturday mornings. Maybe the new proposal will move them to City Hall. Might be a reasonable thing to do. The street on the east could easily be closed off as it says in the proposal call. So, maybe there is still hope to get the community involved.

However, we are now stuck with the location.