Driving through Oliver a couple of years ago on her way to judge a Communities in Bloom competition, Shirley Fowler noticed how spruced up the old downtown buildings looked.
The Armstrong councillor found out Oliver held a Let’s Paint The Town event, to give its downtown buildings a fresh look.
“They had nice bold colours put on some older buildings, and really rejuvenated the drive through Oliver,” said Fowler, an Armstrong councillor who is spearheading the same thing for her city.
The official Let’s Paint The Town launch goes Tuesday, at Armstrong City Hall, from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. This is an initiative to encourage Armstrong businesses to paint their exteriors and help make the city an even more beautiful place to live.
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“I thought maybe we could bring something to Armstrong,” said Fowler. “Give us a fresh coat of paint, a new trim, paint some door. Just give us a fresh, updated look.”
Armstrong’s mayor and council, along with community volunteers, walked around town personally delivering invitations to the launch to building and business owners. The Armstrong Spallumcheen Chamber of Commerce supplemented the volunteers by putting the invitation in its weekly newsletter e-mailed to businesses.
City hall is being pressure washed in preparation for painting, which is scheduled to start at the launch.
“We have at least two buildings, but probably two more coming on before fall,” said Fowler of the paint program. ” We’ll hold it back during winter, of course, because of weather but it will also give businesses an opportunity to look at their budgets, do some planning, then we’ll relaunch in the spring.
“Some big buildings downtown will be part of a spring launch.”
Armstrong’s Heritage Advisory Committee will be on hand Tuesday to answer any questions for heritage-designated buildings, and for anybody else who wants to paint and update with a heritage look, even if they’re not designated heritage buildings.
Lisa Babee, paint consultant at Shepherd’s Home Hardware, will be on hand Tuesday to answer paint questions, as will B.C.-Yukon Beauti-Tone Paints representative Rick Brooks.
“Shepherd’s Home Hardware is a great community business, and I believe they’re the only ones that sell paint in Armstrong, and the only paint they sell is Beauti-Tone which is a Canadian company,” said Fowler. Shepherd’s and Beauti-Tone are both Canadian companies that support local, so we’re thrilled to have them involved.”
Coffee and treats will be available at Tuesday’s launch, and another interesting attraction will be demonstrations of a phone app, found on Home Hardware/Beauti-Tone’s website. The app allows a user to upload a picture of their building, then use the app’s colour palette to see what the building would look like with a particular colour.
roger@vernonmorningstar.com
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