Visitors coming to explore Sundre, as well as any new residents, will now have an easier time finding their way around the community.
A town crew was recently busy installing new directional way-finding signs at 10 locations throughout the municipality.
“An eleventh sign had to be removed and is being reinstalled soon to improve sightline issues,” wrote Jon Allan, Sundre's economic development officer, in a press release dated Wednesday, Sept. 14.
The design of the new signs was carefully considered to complement Sundre's charm, he said.
“Using locally sourced timber and featuring a unique design and look, they will be reflective of Sundre's character for years to come — just as signs in other major tourism destinations are reflective of theirs.”
The town department of economic development completed the whole project in-house — except for graphic design — with help from the departments of community services as well as operational services. The total cost to plan, design, manufacture and install the 11 new way-finding signs will come in at less than $17,000, which is under half the $35,000 initially budgeted over 2015 and 2016, he said.
Including the cost of the new sign installed last year at the Visitor Information Centre, which came in shy of $15,000 and intentionally shares similar thematic elements as the new way-finding signs, the total cash outlay will be less than $32,000, “which is significantly under — by 29 per cent — the allotted $45,000 total budget over two years,” he said.
“By completing the project without any outside consultant, administration was able to save tens of thousands of dollars for residents.”
The intent of the new signage is twofold — to help people navigate the community and more easily find key destinations around town as well as to help “reinforce a unique, welcoming and modern brand appeal of the community to visitors and potential new residents.”
The signage is not limited to directing people to destinations like the rodeo grounds or museum. A unique colour-coded system was also included to identify neighbourhoods. Several neighbourhoods have been branded as unique “areas” and assigned a colour that is reflected on each sign within their respective area. For example, one of the new “area” names is the Recreation and Culture Area, which is located generally along Second Avenue NW and is represented by a light green colour taken from the Town of Sundre's logo. The signs “look entirely unique as compared to those found in other communities, therefore reflecting a unique brand for Sundre,” he said.
From drawing board to installation, the project has taken more than a year to implement.
“The effort to distinguish unique destinations in town and to determine key ‘areas' first involved private meetings with Town of Sundre employees, who are often experts of the community,” said Allan.
“Following these meetings, the public was surveyed as well. Combining the results, a graphic and industrial design team was hired to create draft signage designs that then went to the public again for their input. With a final design selected, it was brought to council with the public's support.”
Moving forward, a signage plan will be completed to guide new signage installations in the future. Signs need to be installed in the new Southwest Industrial Area near 10th Street SW, and the East Side Area, representing Sundre's urban area on the east bank of the Red Deer River. Further signs will need to be installed along provincial roadways, such as highways 27 and 22, as well as the Bergen Road, which is technically a provincial highway, he said.
However, those signs are not about to be installed on the important corridor coming into Sundre from the east because of provincial regulations, although town officials hope to tackle that hurdle.
“Unfortunately, Alberta's Ministry of Transportation has restrictions that do not allow municipalities to place town branded way-finding signage along provincial roadways — such as Main Avenue, Bergen Road or Highway 22 — even if those roadways are located within a community's urban contiguous area. This reflects a major obstacle to the town's economic development implementation efforts, which we hope to resolve,” said Allan.
