Paris, Tenn. Mayor Larry Crawford and city manager Carl Holder made it clear they were impressed by the “northern hospitality” of Fort Frances during their stay here last week.
Unfortunately, the good time they had here was not on their minds once they returned home Sunday night to find tornadoes had ravaged their town.
“They’ve got their hands full right now,” noted Fort Frances CAO Bill Naturkach, who was part of the host committee along with EDO Geoff Gillon, Mayor Glenn Witherspoon, Chamber of Commerce president Alan Tibbetts, and Times’ publisher Jim Cumming.
“Their city hall took a hit as did their school/theatre multi-use facility. As did their e-mail server—it got totally wiped out,” Naturkach said, adding about 70 homes also were damaged or destroyed there.
But certainly their time here was a brighter story as the pair noted in an interview Saturday.
“The hospitality has been great,” said Mayor Crawford.
“The South is known for its hospitality and I think you about put us to shame,” echoed Holder.
The two, who arrived last Wednesday night and left early Sunday, were kept busy during their time here, having meetings with town management and representatives from the health care, social service, and education fields, with the Chamber of Commerce board of directors, the Northwestern Ontario Municipal Association (NOMA) board of directors, special interest groups, and major employers in the private sector such as Abitibi-Consolidated.
They also attended a “meet-and-greet” pancake breakfast Saturday morning at the Sister Kennedy Centre.
They also toured the local high school, landfill, business district, and the west end of the district, and took a boat trip on Rainy Lake among other activities.
“We enjoyed the lake trip. I am a lake person,” said Mayor Crawford. “I have enjoyed it all, but we’ve had to do it all so fast.”
“I think the main thing we got out of it was seeing all the similarities and the problems,” noted Holder. “I just like to know there’s some shared things as far as what we’re going through.”
Such similarities include a high school that’s been long-since abandoned, attracting businesses to invest in a small town, a similar population base, and even bass fishing.
“People here seem to know more about bass fishing in Paris than I did,” laughed Holder.
But there’s always some differences, he chuckled. The sense of distance, for instance.
“I mean, when someone says, ‘It’s just down the road,’ here, it can means 150 miles. In Paris, when we say, ‘Oh, it’s just down the road,’ we mean one mile,” he remarked.
Given their whirlwind tour of the area, the pair were reluctant to comment Saturday on matters such as the impact of “big box” retailers on a small community without talking amongst themselves beforehand.
But they did stress when it comes to the commercial sector, “getting a mix of businesses” is key.
While the town presented the delegates with a plaque inscribed with a message of friendship during the NOMA banquet Friday evening at La Place Rendez-Vous, the two communities are hoping to move beyond this gesture and share more ideas—and tourist dollars—down the road as “twins.”
“We’ve picked a date but at this point, we can’t say for sure when there will be any announcements,” said Naturkach.
“The next step is to collect the various interest players in commerce and tourism, and set them up together,” he added. “Then, we can establish a timetable to create a package for an entourage to go down there.
“We talked tentatively about a bass tour,” noted Holder.
Mayor Glenn Witherspoon said the visitors had “nothing but good things” to say about the people of the district.
“I think they were surprised with the quality of our infrastructure when it comes to delivery of services to citizens, such as the Memorial Sports Centre, the multi-use facility, and so on,” he remarked.
“They [also] were impressed with the amount of small industry we have in the area. I think there is some potential for some partnerships there,” added the mayor.
“They were wonderful guests,” said Naturkach. “We kept them busy, maybe too busy. But I do have to say we appreciate people’s hospitality towards them.”
Their visit was a follow-up from one made by Mayor Witherspoon, Naturkach, and Gillon to Paris and another city down there called Winchester last year.
The three toured the two cities’ municipal offices, police departments, and recreation centres, as well as taking in some sights like the Tims Ford state park, the Jack Daniels distillery, and an old jail converted into a museum.
They also discussed economic growth and the value of business incentives to keep small communities alive while there.
Paris is located about halfway between Memphis and Nashville, and features such attractions as a replica of the Eiffel Tower and an annual week-long fish fry that draws 75,000 people.
Fort Frances Times
Local News from Across the Rainy River District
