A pair of southern visitors will get a taste of northern hospitality next week when Paris, Tenn. Mayor Larry Crawford and city manager Carl Holder arrive here to visit their prospective “twin city” for a few days.
“We, the three delegates from here, meaning myself, Geoff Gillon, and Bill Naturkach, went down there last year,” noted Fort Frances Mayor Glenn Witherspoon.
“We really had our eyes opened with regard to economic development, tourism, and just the similarities between our communities,” he noted.
“It will be great for us to show them what we have here,” Mayor Witherspoon added. “I look forward to . . . returning the same hospitality they showed us.
“And hopefully the community will greet them the same way.”
Meanwhile, the committee responsible for showing Mayor Crawford and Holder around, and arranging their stay, will see that the delegates are kept very busy.
“It’s a pretty heavy schedule,” said Fort Frances CAO Bill Naturkach, who sits on the committee along with Mayor Witherspoon, Gillon, Times’ publisher Jim Cumming, and local Chamber of Commerce president Alan Tibbetts.
“But we think we managed to cover all the bases, and have them meet with representatives from all the various sectors,” he added.
Mayor Crawford and Holder will arrive in International Falls late next Wednesday (April 30) and then wake up Thursday morning to have a breakfast meeting with local services providers.
This group includes town management and representatives from the health care, social service, and education fields.
The pair then will tour the community for the rest of the morning (Coun. Roy Avis, owner of West End Motors, has agreed to give the visitors use of a vehicle during their stay), then have a luncheon at the Rainy Lake Hotel with the Chamber of Commerce board of directors.
They will meet with the Northwestern Ontario Municipal Association (NOMA) board of directors for the afternoon, finally ending the day at a formal dinner put on by the Town of Fort Frances.
Held at the Red Dog Inn, the dinner also will be attended by special interest groups and major employers in the private sector (such as Abitibi-Consolidated).
Mayor Crawford and Holder then will spend much of Friday at NOMA’s annual conference, which takes place May 1-3 at La Place Rendez-Vous. The pair also will take a boat trip on Rainy Lake before attending the NOMA banquet that evening at the Rendez-Vous.
At this banquet, the town will present the delegates with a plaque inscribed with a message of friendship.
A “meet and greet” pancake breakfast is scheduled for the Saturday (May 2) from 8-10 a.m. at the Sister Kennedy Centre, which the public is welcome to attend. Cost is $3.50 for adults and $1.75 for children.
After breakfast, the delegates will tour the local paper mill, then have a “wrap up” meeting at Kettle’s Restaurant with the host committee to determine what the “next steps” will be, said Naturkach.
Some ideas that already have been thrown around include a road trip to Paris, Tenn. for both local tourists and entrepreneurs in the future.
Saturday will continue with more sightseeing and then a barbecue at Naturkach’s house.
The duo will fly out of International Falls early Sunday morning (May 3).
As the mayor noted, the visit by Mayor Crawford and Holder is a follow-up to a visit local reps made to Tennessee (Paris and another city called Winchester) last year.
At that time, Paris was found to share numerous similarities with Fort Frances, such as a small population and a focus on tourism as a vital part of their economy.
Mayor Witherspoon, Gillon, and Naturkach 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 down there.
(Fort Frances Times)
Fort Frances Times
Local News from Across the Rainy River District
