ANTIGONISH: During a special council meeting on Dec. 8, the Town of Antigonish approved a motion in support of enhancing Antigonish as a tourist destination for cycling and mountain biking, from a group of local businesses.
The Antigonish Tourism Association (ATA), which is currently made up of Evergreen Inn, Claymore Inn and Suites, Maritime Inn, Homeward Inn, Keppoch Inn, Coastal Inn, the Brownstone Restaurant, Gabrieau’s Bistro, Back East Seafood, Mainstreet Café, and Justamere Café and Bakery made an ask to both municipal units in Antigonish for $27,000.
Following the town’s regular monthly council meeting on Dec. 13, Mayor Laurie Boucher told The Reporter council felt it was really important to support this initiative.
“One, it’s coming from the business sector themselves, that have a vested interest in it and are taking a financial part in it as well,” Boucher said. “And two, we really do believe it will help attract business, people and tourism to our area.”
The mayor thinks this is a very good partnership between the town, county and the ATA.
The proposed project involves the development and enhancement of tourism experiences in the community, and according to a presentation from the ATA, it is designed to position the Antigonish region as a bike-friendly tourist destination and build upon efforts to situate it as a hub for adventure tourism.
This particular project proposes the creation of eight secure storage sheds with repair and washing stations to be situated at accommodation locations and also envisions four large, centrally and strategically located parking stations as well as 12 smaller stations situated throughout the town.
The cost for the eight storage sheds, with repair and washing stations, is estimated at $98,976 plus tax; while the cost of the parking stations is estimated at $14,800 plus tax.
In addition to a $30,000 investment in trail grooming gear, and the development of high-quality and readily available bike trail maps and a $84,500 media campaign, to ensure the success of this project, and for project continuity, ATA proposes the inclusion of a coordinator to oversee execution of this project over a one and a half year period.
“They really thought of a lot of things, and a lot of it overlaps with the tourism strategy that we’re starting to develop as well, through communication and community development,” Boucher said. “It fits in really well with what both the town and county have already started.”
Councillors in the Municipality of the County of Antigonish made a similar motion of support for the project during their regular monthly council meeting on Dec. 15.
“Tourism operators came and put an application into (the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency) to support a bike-friendly community,” Warden Owen McCarron told The Reporter following the meeting. “This ducktails well with what’s happening and has happened over the last number of years at the Keppoch.”
The warden suggested the individuals that come in and take advantage of Keppoch Mountain and its trials need a place to clean, service and sometimes store their bicycles properly, many of which are extremely expensive.
He explained the municipality’s $27,000 portion is contingent on receiving ACOA’s funding portion as well.
“We felt it was a natural fit, it’s the tourism operators themselves that are kind of leading the initiative, it’s great to see the business community rolling up their sleeves on this,” McCarron said. “We felt it was just a good thing to do, to create one more reason for people to come to our community.”
When you have an initiative like this, the warden said, one where its being driven by the operators themselves, they know which boxes to tick and how to get things into people’s hands.
“It’s nice to be working in partnership with that,” McCarron said. “We were quite pleased with their presentation and kind of what the overall objective of this is.”