Timmins

TIMMINS, ONTARIO parks within our community-Whitewater Park in the east end of town andHollinger Park in the Central por- tion,”Jensen continues.“Both are verypopular parks to residents in our community,as well as visitors.Council has allocated approximately$2.5million in funding to enhance both of these parks.We’ve hosted detailed, public,input sessions in 2016 and 2017,to give us an idea of what the publicwould like to see done.And that will help to formulate five-year capital plans for these parks.” Timmins is also paying attention to its downtown core.“Themain downtown for the city,today,is reg- istered as a BIA,a Business ImprovementArea,”says Mayor Steve Black.“There’s an urban park there in the BIA,and they’ll do various events throughout the summer.Very recently,wewent through amajor hydro project,downtown,that involved constructing hydro vaults in order tomove all the overheadwires under- ground,to beautifyand improve the downtown aes- thetics.Theyalso set up decorative LED lights,and they have ongoing projects for beautification.” “We have a Community Improvement Program (CIP) that has been in place since 2007to help promote growth and development in our downtown core, recognizing that the infrastructure is already in the ground and is underutilized,”Jensen adds.“So,rather than expanding the boundaries of the cityand ex- tending infrastructure,we’re trying to take advantage of what’s already there,andmaximizewhat we have. We’ve been very successful in terms of attracting a number of major projects,downtown,in recent years. We had a brand newfederal building constructed; we had a reconstruction of a former retail site; we had a major hotel development; and a redevelopment of a former hospital into a retirement home.So our CIPhas been very successful in terms of offering incentives and generating interest from the development community to invest in our downtown core.We’re alsoworking on a Community Improvement Plan for industrial and commercial sites in our community.We’re looking at incentives to clean up dirtyproperties and bring them intomore productive uses,as well as attractingmore industrial and commercial investment.” Timmins’Chief AdministrativeOfficer,Dave Land- ers,mentions yet another local project-a partnership between theNorthern College of AppliedArts and Technologyand the Cochrane District Social Services Administration Board,for a Center of Excellence for Integrated EmergencyServices at theNorthern Col- lege campus.“The college has started construction at a site that is going to teach emergency services-police and fire services and paramedic services-in a building that’s integratedwith an ambulancebaseandavolun- teer firehall,”hesays.“TheCityofTimmins is responsible for fireservicesandwe’removingourvolunteer fireser- viceoutof a70-year-oldbuildingand intothenewCenter of Excellence,which is slatedtoopen inthe fall.” Newprojectsandtraditional pastimesall combine to makeTimmins,Ontario,truly,theCitywithaHeartofGold. PREFERRED VENDORS n Sword Security Canada www.swordsecurity.ca Sword Security was founded in Ireland in the late 1990s by Diarmuid Smyth and became the leading supplier of crowd management and event security services in the country, be- fore expanding into the UK market in 2006. The UK opera- tions grew quickly due to the quality of the company’s service and professionalism, and in 2011, it was awarded the contract for Crowd Management and Stewarding for the Olympic Park and other LOCOG venues for the London Olympic Games of 2012. In 2013 Sword acquired Lowell Security and launched in Canada, where it is now a leading provider of services to the sports and entertainment sectors in Toronto, as well as maintaining operations in Northern Ontario under the Lowell brand. n EBC, Inc. www.ebcinc.com