City council is touting an ambitious new strategy to make Flin Flon cleaner, safer and more visitor-friendly, but its success could hinge on buy-in from residents.
Council has approved in principle Flin Flon Clean and Green (CAG), a still-evolving framework that focuses on community beautification and other improvements.
“We all sort of agreed that Flin Flon’s starting to look tired,” said Coun. Colleen McKee, referring to a committee meeting from which CAG was hatched. “I mean, it’s an old city as it is and it’s just to the point where I think it’s starting to show its age.”
Speaking at Tuesday’s council meeting, McKee cited eyesores ranging from overgrown trees and grass to derelict vehicles and homes that are never quite finished.
“There’s people that have left their houses unsided for a very long time,” she said. “They’ve left them unpainted. They’ve failed to put stairs off their front door. Things like that.”
Among other measures, McKee suggested the city consider enacting and enforcing property clean-up laws, and enforce laws around derelict-vehicle storage.
She sees room for additional signage to point visitors and newcomers to points of interest.
“People that come to town don’t know where to go,” McKee said. “Lots of people will say, ‘Oh yeah, [an event] is out at the ski club.’ Well, people that have lived here all their lives know where that is. But tourists, they don’t know where that is.”
To make Flin Flon even more visitor-friendly, McKee endorses the concept of regular community tours.
“Every community that I’ve gone to, I can actually book a tour and tour their community and find out what it’s all about,” she said. “I can find out about their history, I can find out a lot about their community.”
McKee said beautification not only attracts people to a community, but can also make it safer. She cited research showing that cleaning up and taking pride in an area of a community has the added benefit of reducing crime.
She said there appears to be “a heightened fear in the community about safety” even though she’s not sure the crime stats warrant such reaction.
“I think lots of that has to do with social media and some of the comments [people make online],” McKee said. “I mean, we live in an age now where we have an opportunity to put whatever we think and feel [online] for everyone out there to see, and I think what it’s doing is it’s kind of creating some fear in our local residents, even though our crime hasn’t necessarily increased – it has in some areas, I’m not in denial saying it hasn’t increased – but I’m saying I don’t think it’s that huge of an increase.”
If Flin Flon is truly worried about crime, she said, it may be time to “start cleaning up.”
During her presentation on CAG, McKee said city workers, support workers and volunteer residents could accomplish the work associated with the strategy.
To implement CAG, she suggested the city use revenue from its accommodation tax on overnight stays. She also mentioned incentives in the city budget, grants and, most importantly, the engagement of community members and groups.
“We want to take pride and ownership in our community because it is ours,” McKee said. “I have so many people say, ‘Well why doesn’t the city do this? Why doesn’t the city do that?’ Well guess what? You are the city. It’s just not [council], it’s all of us.”
While a number of particulars around CAG have yet to be finalized, Mayor Cal Huntley said council has approved the plan in principle.
“It is the kind of program where people as individuals can have a significant impact without the details being completely worked out,” he said.
Coun. Karen MacKinnon, who along with other councillors and city administrators was involved in the development of CAG, said people who have ideas or would like to volunteer can speak to the mayor or a councillor.
“We are very excited about this,” she said.
Further details around CAG may be made available when the city unveils is proposed 2016 budget later this month.
