Salmon Arm's historic routes recognized

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Twenty-five historic street signs will be created this year to increase awareness of the historic pattern of development in the city.

The plan is part of the Community Heritage Commission’s proposal to implement a Historic Road Names Program.

Unlike some road signs in town that already have a contemporary sign above with the historical equivalent on a much smaller marker below, the new signs will include a regular sign on top with a brown, more rustic name plate of nearly the same size below. The budget for the 25 signs is $2,000.

City staff reported there are 360 potential locations for the sign program.

At the March 5 meeting of the city’s planning and development services meeting, Coun. Alan Harrison, the city’s rep on the heritage committee,  said he’d like to thank the committee for all its work, particularly because the sign program has been complicated to create.

Some signs were straightforward, he explained, in that  the current name of 2nd Avenue NE  is quite different than its historical equivalent Harris Street, for instance. Where it can get complicated  is in cases like Ross Street, which was previously Ross Avenue. Instead of having a strange combo of conflicting signs, the committee  decided to have the historic sign in that case say “Historic Route.”

Harrison said the committee wrestled with whether to have the signs state “Historic Street” or “Historic Road” or “Historic Avenue” and decided on Historic Route so there would be no confusion based on the street’s current status as a street or road.

Coun. Denise Reimer thanked the committee for planning to have both the historic and contemporary names well-marked, noting that as a person who works in emergency services, she know how important having well-marked signs is for the ability of personnel to respond quickly.