Open your hearts and open your wallets to Barrie’s landmark sign.
Councillors will consider a motion Monday night for Barrie landmark sign, featuring a heart and the city's name, no more than eight feet tall, to be installed in Heritage Park. It would be paid for through fundraising before Sept. 30 and in place by July 1, 2022.
Coun. Mike McCann must make a 100 per cent fundraising commitment of $200,000 by September’s end – with 75 per cent of donations paid to the city by then — to finance the landmark sign.
The Ward 10 councillor says he’s never raised this amount of money before in such little time.
“I’ve raised already close to $70,000 to $80,000. I raised 50 (thousand dollars) in about two hours,” he told BarrieToday Thursday morning. “My (original) condition was that I would raise 50 (thousand) and the city of Barrie would put in 150 (thousand dollars).
“I felt that council was not interested in providing $150,000 and so I decided to change my item that I would fund-raise the whole amount, because I feel very passionately that this is, once we get out of COVID, I think we all need something that’s going to be inspirational,” McCann said.
“We need something that we all can call ours and this is really going to bind the city together and I think there’s going to be a lot of spin-off," he added.
McCann has said this project is intended to unite Barrie — to help businesses by driving residents and visitors to the downtown and have them celebrate the city by being photographed with the landmark sign.
Coun. Clare Riepma says he’s still not in favour of the sign.
“We have a lot of other priorities to spend our time and money on,” he said. “We don’t need another sign in the city.”
The motion councillors will vote on Monday says $15,000 would be added to the city’s operations department budget, beginning in 2022, to cover costs of any graffiti removal and winter maintenance on and around the sign.
McCann said he thought that is fair.
“There’s some responsibility that the city has to take on and I think that me raising the whole amount is overkill,” he said. “When you feel passionate about something, as an entrepreneur, sometimes you have to wear 15 hats, and I’m willing to put 15 hats on to raise the money.
“But if anybody in the city thinks that $15,000 for an inspirational landmark sign is a waste of money, definitely love to hear from you and see why," McCann said.
Again, Riepma holds the opposite opinion.
“Even if all the money for the sign is donated, the taxpayer is asked to pick up the tab for maintenance every year,” said the Ward 1 councillor. “It may only be $15,000 per year, but that is money that we could use for other things.”
McCann said he thinks people and individuals are going to want to be photographed with the sign.
“This is definitely not an original idea, but it’s an idea that works,” he said. “I would have preferred council to want to help and jump in, be a part of it, but if they don’t… I feel passionately and strongly that this is what Barrie needs next year.
"It’s going to be a global landmark that people, when they come to Barrie, they’re going to get pictured with.”
If all of the fundraising commitment of $200,000 is not received by Sept. 30, 2021 – with 75 per cent of donations paid to the city by that date, staff would not proceed with a request for proposals (RFP) to design and manufacture the sign.
The project would instead be cancelled and any donations received would be returned to donors. Unlike other projects, this one does not have another funding source, so the city could not go to RFP until the funding is secured.
If 100 per cent of fundraising has been committed and 75 per cent of the $200,000 has been paid to the city by Sept. 30, 2021, the remaining 25 per cent would need to be paid to the city by March 31, 2022.
Sept. 30, 2021 was chosen to provide enough time for staff to issue an RFP and select a vendor to design, fabricate and install the sign before July 1, 2022.
As of May 28, 2021, the city has not received any donations toward the landmark sign.
Staff would report back to city council in a memo in October 2021 on the amount of donations received, whether the project is moving forward and next steps.
Staff considered four locations for the sign: Heritage Park, Meridian Place, Barrie City Hall, and South Shore Park, along Lakeshore Drive.
Heritage Park is recommended for its wide-open spaces, view of the waterfront in the background and it’s close to the downtown offering connections to businesses, Meridian Place and gathering spaces for residents and tourists. It also provides enough space for safety and accessibility. There’s enough open space to safely allow groups to gather and safely take photos. Many city events take place at Heritage Park, so it is a natural draw for the community and for tourists.
Concerns include that Heritage Park is the smallest of the main waterfront parks — Centennial, South Shore and Allandale Station. A hard surface in the vicinity of the sign installation will be important for accessibility and to avoid turning the turf to mud when wet. Security measures would also be needed to deter vandalism there.
To make the sign unique, it could be wrapped with public art to create a unique sign reflecting the community. This would provide a way for the landmark sign to showcase the uniqueness of Barrie and help to draw people back to the sign for multiple visits.
The city issued a request for information (RFI) to better understand the scope of the project, anticipated timelines, costs and feedback on possible locations. It garnered 13 responses.
The estimated timeline for the project is that it would take roughly four months from design to installation, be constructed from steel and aluminum and have a coating applied to assist with graffiti removal. The sign should be under warranty from between one to three years and should last between 10 and 20 years. It would be lit with LED lights, which would require little power and have minimal energy costs.
Donors would be recognized with a plaque approximately 18 inches wide by 16 inches tall, embossed in the ground near the landmark sign in Heritage Park to include a listing by name of all donors.
The sign would be maintained in all seasons by city operations staff, including snow clearing, landscaping, graffiti removal, etc. Graffiti removal would cost roughly $5,000 annually and winter maintenance would cost about $10,000 a year. These costs would be paid from the operations budget. The sign would be covered under the city’s blanket liability insurance policy.
