The inaugural Ontario Business Improvement Area Association conference in Hamilton last week proved very informative to local BIA members who attended it.
“It was a very good conference,” Larry Syrovy, who sits on both the local BIA and OBIAA boards, said after returning home late last Wednesday.
“It helped us get on par with southern Ontario, which is usually far ahead of us in the area of business improvement,” he noted.
Syrovy attended the conference, entitled “Downtowns: Alive and Well in the Heart of Your Community,” along with fellow BIA members Janis Lesko and Joan Struch.
“One of the interesting sessions was one which talked about teaming up with your local Chamber of Commerce and municipal government,” he said.
“We’ve recently been co-operating more with the Chamber here, of course, but there was some information to bring back with us.
“And there was a very interesting session on smoking bylaws, very controversial,” added Syrovy, owner of the Rainy Lake Hotel. “The bottom line is it will continue to be a hot topic. The most important thing is how it’s implemented.
“For instance, we found out it’s most hard on bars. It’s hard on restaurants too, but they manage to recover after several months. Bars never recover,” he noted.
Syrovy said according to the presentation, the only way to implement such a bylaw across the board is to make a level playing field—and to make it known many months in advance that such a policy is coming.
“It was an exceptionally informative conference,” agreed Lesko, adding she’s “very excited” to be able to deliver what she had learned to the rest of the BIA here.
“There was lots of learning going on,” she noted, adding workshops varied from how to capitalize on domestic tourism to beautification and much more.
“Right through Ontario, revamping downtowns has been a big priority. And some of the larger centres have tried many things to revitalize their downtowns,” noted Lesko.
“There [are] ideas I think we could use.”
Also at the conference, the OBIAA held its first formal election of its board of directors. One of the original members when it was formed about a year ago, Syrovy was elected to the provincial board.
“I look forward to continue working with the OBIAA,” he noted.
The OBIAA is a non-profit association of 110 BIAs from all parts of Ontario.
In related news, the BIA held its annual general meeting last night at the Rainy Lake Hotel.
The newest members on its board of directors include Nancy Kehler (Pharmasave), Darren Brown (CFOB), and Janis Lesko (Toonies).
Fort Frances Times
Local News from Across the Rainy River District
