Halloween celebration return in 2023
Council approved funding for an evening Halloween bonfire, activities, and BBQ for this year. The last year the bonfire was held was in 2019. Since then, the Town has hosted a family-friendly event (Echoes of the Forest) on the weekend closest to Halloween at the Banff Recreation Grounds. This event is geared towards younger children. With a desire to host an event for older kids/adults, council committed an additional $6,000 from the budget stabilization reserve for programming.
Fireworks/pyrotechnics are not being considered for the event.
Sidewalk seating for Wolf Street
Council approved funding to install temporary platforms on Wolf Street to create sidewalk seating for restaurants.
These platforms were intended as a trial of design options, first in 2019, to help assess concepts for future reconstruction of Caribou Street and Wolf Street. With the introduction of the Banff Avenue Pedestrian Zone in 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the existing platforms were used on Wolf Street, with modifications to locations. As Caribou Street was inside the Banff Avenue Pedestrian Zone area, the materials from the Caribou Street platforms were used to maintain and make changes to the Wolf Street platforms as well as in the creation of the platform that was installed on the 300 block of Banff Avenue.
The old platforms have come to the end of their life and new ones are required.
Council committed $37,900, for a total capital cost of $98,330, from the Economic Recovery Reserve for the construction and installation of the platforms on Wolf Street.