NEWS PHOTO COLLIN GALLANT
Coun. Darren Hirsch told council on Monday that he wants to see if a potential grant downtown business owners to clean up graffiti should be extended throughout the city.
cgallant@medicinehatnews.com@CollinGallant
City council debated earmarking $100,000 in a proposed economic development incentive program in next year’s budget to help downtown business owners clean up graffiti or criminal damage, but sent the item back to staff until later in the budget process.
It returns to public services committee, where Public Services Chair, Coun. Ramona Robins, suggested the program be studied last winter in a notice of motion.
She said Monday that city hall must address the perception that downtown is unsafe or “un-welcoming for some residents,” and downtown where city and private investments have been made over the years is the focus.
Others asked that the program be expanded to other business owners in other areas of the city because “crime is not limited to the downtown, and my phone could explode with business owners in other parts of the city who are taxpayers too,” said Coun. Darren Hirsch before eventually referring the item back to committee.
“We’ve shown support for downtown, we’ve increased police patrols, but there are problems across this city.”
Staff also said that while some cities that also help residents with small grants to clean-up after crime, most limit outlays to commercial property owners.
They suggest using a $100,000-portion of the proposed $2.6 million economic development incentive grant program written into the budget proposal for relief to business owners who see damage due to crime.
Staff further propose allocations of up to $1,000 per application cover up to half the cost of clean up and repairs, and up to $5,000 per business owner for projects that add design elements to prevent crime and loitering.
In a voluntary survey of 30 downtown business owners, 22 said they had been impacted by mischief or vandalism, with nine stating they had suffered multiple instances.
Coun. Robert Dumanowski said $1,000 will not provide much help to cleanup damage, but felt the study’s focus areas was the downtown.
Coun. Allison Knodel agreed.
“It would be most impactful to start in the downtown core, and then potentially spreading to other areas,” she said.
“There’s room for growth, but let’s test it out.”
Coun. Shila Sharps said the program shouldn’t be a burden to business owners, and she would have liked a wider survey.
Coun. Andy McGrogan said a “heat map” of damages or police calls should be provided when the item returns.
Mayor Linnsie Clark said she’d vote against the program stating that approval should come after the whole development incentive is approved with the rest of the budget later this year.
City manager Ann Mitchell agreed, and Hirsch’s motion that it go back to public services was approved unanimously.
That will be taken up again, likely in the early new year, after the whole 2025-2026 budget is approved following further discussions in late 2024.
