Red Deer Minute: Hospital Expansion, Public Art, and Vacant Spaces Grants

Red Deer Minute - Your weekly one-minute summary of Red Deer politics

This Week In Red Deer:

• City Council is still on summer break, and there are no Council meetings scheduled until August 21st. There are no Committee meetings this week either.
  
  
• This weekend, the Afro-Caribbean Festival will be taking place downtown. There will be music and dance performances, a vendor market, a beer tasting, henna, and some family friendly activities. Events run on Saturday from noon to 8:00 pm and Sunday from noon to 6:00 pm.
  
  
• On Saturday, Canada’s National Arabian Championship begins an 8-day competition at Westerner Park. This is the largest Arabian horse event in Canada with competitors from across North America. More information is available online.

Last Week In Red Deer:

• The Minister of Infrastructure, Peter Guthrie, wrote an editorial on the expansion of the Red Deer Regional Hospital. He reiterated his government's commitment to the project, both to getting it right and to doing it as quickly as possible, noting that the “Red Deer Hospital redevelopment is one of the largest health care projects that the province has ever undertaken”. The project is now out of the planning phase and into the design phase, and should be complete by 2031.
  
  
• The City announced the Vacant Spaces Grant - a new subsidy program to help new businesses pay some of their rent if they open a storefront in downtown Red Deer. Up to $10,000 in funding is available, and priority areas include vacant street-level spaces along 50th Avenue between 48th Street and 53rd Street, as well as spaces along 49th Street between 48th Avenue and 50th Avenue. The application deadline is 4:00 pm on September 1st.
  
  
• The City has put out a call for Canadian artists to submit expressions of interest for a public art project. The art will decorate the newly renovated City Hall, and the City has budgeted $39,000 for the project. A shortlist of three artists will be chosen by October 1st. Those artists will then receive $1,500 to provide a detailed proposal and a 15-minute presentation to the Public Art Commission on November 8th. Completion of the artwork is expected to be in the spring of 2024.

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