Business View Civil and Municipal l December 2022

125 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE VOLUME 9, ISSUE 12 Chief Administrative Officer Robin Paquette adds, “We are truly blessed to have one of the jewels of the Ottawa Valley right here in our town. The Grove Forest is an over 100-year- old white pine forest, owned by the Nature Conservancy of Canada and therefore protected. It is like walking into Algonquin Park when you walk into this 50-acre parcel right in the middle of town.” Connected to this forest is the town’s Robert Simpson Park, where a community beach offers residents and visitors a beautiful space to relax and unwind during the summer months. A second beach is located in McLean Avenue Park, where baseball enthusiasts can take in a game at one of three ball diamonds. The Nick Smith Center offers two Olympic-sized ice pads, as well as a community pool, and is Arnprior’s main recreational facility. “On top of that, we’re blessed with neighborhood parks all throughout the town that have playgrounds, and sometimes ice rinks in the winter. There are lots of recreational opportunities, lots of trails through those natural areas and around the town,” says Paquette. An investment of $10.5 million into a downtown revitalization project has brought vibrancy to the community, as Stack recounts, “The revitalization program was completed about five years ago. We updated all of the in-ground services as well as above-ground, with new widened sidewalks, new lighting, benches, trees, and all of the aesthetic things to really beautify the downtown. At that time, I would say that our store occupancy rate was somewhere around 65%, and now it borders about 98%. It’s really become a destination community because of that.” The charming updates to Downtown Arnprior also make it a perfect small-town backdrop, with several Hallmark and Christmas movies filmed on the main street since its rejuvenation. As the second fastest-growing town in Eastern Ontario, and 10th on the list of rapidly growing communities in Canada, Arnprior is experiencing major growth in the housing sector. “We have a number of very large subdivisions on the go, and our growth has been really dramatic in the last 10 to 12 years,” relays Stack. “Last year, we really hit a record with over 300 permits coming in, ARNPR IOR ONTAR IO, CANADA