Salmon Arm’s heritage commission is opening the doors to donations that will assist in purchasing signs to mark the city’s historic roads.
The Salmon Arm Museum and Heritage Association has agreed to a request by the commission to oversee the collection of donations to support the historic roads program.
“The commission was interested in knowing whether people who lived on streets with heritage names could contribute to a possible heritage sign,” commission chair Coun. Alan Harrison explained.
Harrison was speaking to the minutes of the commission’s Jan. 18 meeting, which states people have already expressed interest in donating $100 for a sign to be installed on their street.
“The advantage is, instead of having money trickle into city hall, it will be gathered there and come in a lump sum,” said Harrison of the heritage association. “That would assist the heritage commission in following through on our goal of historic road names.”
The minutes state a minimum order of 25 signs is needed to bring the cost down to $100, and if city funding is not available, the order could likely not be placed.
The commission will continue with developing a donation process for the program.
Harrison noted the commission is working on phase 3 of the city’s heritage registry, and that a component of this will be a new heritage plaque program.
“The idea being, now that we have a heritage registry, we want to educate tourists and people in Salmon Arm on those heritage buildings, and so a plaque program would help us do that,” said Harrison, stressing the program is still in its infancy.