Business Improvement Area

While the local Business Improvement Area won’t be holding a “Winter Wonderland” festival like it did last year, shoppers on Scott Street will definitely know it’s Christmas over the next few weeks.
“It’s hard to do a straight winter carnival when it’s so cold. And you don’t know what the weather is going to do,” BIA co-ordinator Laurie Beadle said yesterday after the meeting where the board decided to not go full out.
“So instead, it’s going to be Christmas the whole month before,” she noted. “There will be Christmas decorations. People can look for characters walking the street, and Santa should be making appearance at various businesses.”
These decorations will include lights on the tree at the post office, and rope lights around lampposts along Scott Street.
While some details, such as a community choir performing before the Santa Claus parade on Nov. 23, are still being determined, Beadle said it’s confirmed that youngsters will get a chance to have “Lunch with Santa” on Dec. 7 at the Rainy Lake Hotel.
Parents can bring out their children for hot dogs and get their photos taken with ol’ St. Nick. The cost of admission to this event is still being determined.
Anyone wishing to volunteer to help with the festive lunch can call Beadle at 274-7502.
Meanwhile, Beadle noted the Santa Claus parade is coming together, too.
“We have some floats confirmed, but most people don’t register ahead of time. Just as long as they’re at the [Shevlin] wood yard at 5:30 p.m.,” she remarked.
The parade, which will proceed down Scott Street to Central Avenue, begins at 6 p.m.