Junior Planner Brett Kitchen, left, and City Planner Ryan Mackrell shown at council's meeting Monday. They presented a report on Downtown North Battleford Improvement Initiatives proposed by a crime prevention committee during their presentation. (Angela Brown/battlefordsNOW Staff)

By Angela Brown

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Crime prevention committee suggests summer Farmers’ Market, more lighting for the downtown

Feb 25, 2020 | 3:52 PM

A downtown Farmers’ Market in the summer and more lighting downtown. These were some of the crime prevention committee suggestions in the latest report offered to council.

City council heard a presentation on the report outlining proposed Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) ideas for Downtown North Battleford Improvement Initiatives for 2020 at its meeting Monday.

The committee offered a host of fun and engaging activities, as well as more lighting to make the downtown more inviting.

Deputy Mayor Kelli Hawtin said following the meeting there were “lots of good ideas proposed.”

Junior Planner Brett Kitchen presented the report offering several initiatives to essentially improve people’s perceptions of the downtown.

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The report is a response to researcher Tarah Hodgkinson’s summary of a community perceptions of safety survey for North Battleford conducted in 2018 that was released in 2019.

Kitchen said Hodgkinson found overall respondents felt safe in their respective neighbourhoods but that the downtown is where people feel the least safe.

As a result, the CPTED report proposed a number of community initiatives and events for downtown improvement. They included moving the Farmers’ Market to 101 Street or 100 Street for the summer months, hosting a street hockey event, an outdoor movie, creating a giant boardgame in Central Park, hosting an Amazing Race style tournament, and possibly partnering with the Boys and Girls Club on this idea.

In Hodgkinson’s summary she suggested adding more lighting downtown to storefronts and other areas to improve the perception of safety, particularly in the evenings. CPTED’s report indicated an incentive or subsidy possibly could also be offered to local businesses interested in this initiative.

City Planner Ryan Mackrell and City Manager Randy Patrick both agreed the details of the presented ideas are essentially directions at this stage and still need to be further fleshed out.

“Some of them will be coming back to council with additional information required or things that have to get done,” Patrick said. “This is the direction we are hoping to go over the next year or two.”

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angela.brown@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @battlefordsNOW