Chris Clegg
High Prairie town council is selling the log tourist booth.
Years ago, it was moved from the campsite on the east end of town. It housed the Visitor’s Information Centre (VIC) for many years. It was a place tourists could go for information. A couple jobs were created during the summer. All was good!
As time wore on the VIC was closed. The High Prairie Museum offered the service for a short time but since declined the opportunity. The log building sat unused despite its very attractive appearance. It was used only for storage and as Santa’s Workshop during winter.
Fast forward to the present and the log building is described as being a nuisance. The homeless are gathering there, they are breaking into the building, creating a mess in unimaginable ways. Homeless can also hide behind the building out of sight from law enforcement. Garbage is everywhere.
The solution? It has to go!
Let’s be brutally honest. The only reason this building became a nuisance is because we let it be!
The decision to sell the log building to the highest bidder is slipping past the public’s eye with nary a word said about who is promoting the community. High Prairie has not had a VIC (tourist booth) for years. Any promotion is being done through town council’s website.
Other communities do not choose to go this route. They rely on websites and open tourist booths to promote their community. High Prairie, for whatever reason, chooses not to do so. The tourist booth be damned!
To be fair, the High Prairie’s recreation and business community including hotels, restaurants, convenience stores, etc. have not been barging through council’s doors demanding better promotion. So why would council spend the money to open and/or revive the tourist booth?
The way High Prairie promotes itself changes when council changes. Different people are elected who have different agendas. Diana Oliver, Joel Lizee, Irene Salisbury. Rosemary Beggs. Stan Kozie. We could add former High Prairie Chamber of Commerce members such as Judy Shybunia and Lynn Herben. All big boosters of tourism. We could add many more.
When business people are elected to council there is more effort for promotion. Business owners understand the need for promotion. The current council has no business people serving, so why make the effort to promote? As a result, it is not surprising to see the tourist booth be sold. There was no outcry to resurrect its use as a Visitor Information Centre, plus no foresight on council to do so, so why bother?
The end result is High Prairie does a poor job promoting itself. The selling of the tourist booth is just another example of how little High Prairie cares when it comes to promotion.
It has to change if we are to prosper.