Business and property owners in Downtown Lloydminster have decided to terminate their board of directors and be governed under the City’s authority.
The Downtown Lloydminster Business Improvement District (BID) Board of Directors voted 19 -2 in favor of becoming an advisory committee to the City’s Downtown Area Revitalization Plan (DARP). The decision was made at their Annual General Meeting on Wednesday with 21 members in attendance.
Business Owner and Former Chair of Downtown Lloydminster BID Jon Rokochy says that this decision has been years in the making because of various challenges the board has faced.
“There’s been many barriers to moving ahead with realizing a lot of these things. Some of those barriers are our incredibly limited budget, the minimal authority our board has; the City of course is the only ones who can decide will we implement change and what those changes are.”
BID was expected to receive $130,000 in funds for 2018, however 77 per cent of their funding would of gone to three items, which include administration costs, flowers for the downtown and watering those flowers. Rokochy says their board has been trying to do things that is beyond their scope of authority, resources and time.
“There is a lot of relief because it feels like change. It feels like we’ve been spinning our wheels for a long time so it feels like we’re moving into the unknown of course, but change is good.”
The City’s new advisory committee to DARP will see them doing the day to day activities that happen in the downtown such as planting flowers, as well as planning major events like Streetfest and Sip and Savour.
DARP will be proposed and further discussed at City Council in April.