Duane Hicks
Plans for the future Rainy Lake Market Square were unveiled yesterday afternoon on-site at 235 Scott St. (former Rainy Lake Hotel), drawing plenty of public interest.
More than 160 people attended the come-and-go open house, which ran from noon-4 p.m.
The design includes a covered stage, seating areas, a water feature, lighting, and landscaping with a variety of trees and rocks, as well as plenty of open space to accommodate a wide variety of activities.
Landscape architect David Bodnarchuk of Scatliff + Miller + Murray said the design is meant to reflect Fort Frances, lake life, and the natural history of Rainy Lake.
“We think that everybody who lives in this area has [Rainy Lake] as a common ground,” he noted.
“It’s something that tourists are coming here for.”
Bodnarchuk said one of the key words to describe the market square is flexibility.
The space is supposed to be adaptable—able to be used for market days, small performances, large concerts, dining events, or any number of other activities.
“People wanted a space that would transform itself based on whatever’s happening here,” Bodnarchuk noted.
“So if you have a concert here, how you interact with it is different.”
The market square won’t feature public washrooms due to the cost (about $250,000).
Instead, the town is exploring improving access to the pubic washrooms located in the entrance of the Fort Frances Museum.
For special events with large crowds, “porta-potties” will be brought on-site.
The market square includes space for vendors to set up tents and tables to sell their wares, but no permanent vendor booths per se.
The space also does not include solid canopies to provide cover from rain or snow, but has some open web joists that will provide some shade.
And the idea of building a fort, or having fort-themed elements in the market square, also was rejected.
The concept may be explored further at a different location but not as part of the market square project.
Meanwhile, opinions on the market square design varied.
“I think it’s definitely a big improvement to overall area,” said Gary Rogozinski.
“To me, it’s much better than what was here,” he chuckled, referring both to the decrepit Rainy Lake Hotel, which was demolished last fall, and the empty lot sitting there now.
“I think it definitely will add to the ambience of the overall downtown,” Rogozinski noted.
“It will encourage people to stop,” he said. “If you’re travelling through as a tourist and if there’s some place you can buy a coffee close by, sit down and have a coffee, and enjoy downtown.”
But others felt it falls short.
“It doesn’t meet the needs of Fort Frances,” said Ink Spotz Apparel+ owner Scott Krienke-Turvey, who sits on the Rainy Lake Market Square Advisory Committee.
“It’s very pretty,” he conceded.
But according to what many people who attended the open house here in February said they wanted in a market square, “it just does not meet the needs,” he added.
Krienke-Turvey cited public washrooms and being able to use the space in conditions other than fair weather as two things people wanted but were not included in the design.
And others didn’t like it one bit.
A local man, who did not want to be named, said the proposed design simply is “not Fort Frances.”
The Winnipeg-based architecture firm will have tender-ready construction drawings set to go by early July.
The town then will tender a contractor to build the market square, with the intent to begin construction in late summer and completed before winter.
