John Hull will sit in the jury box every day until he retires.

It may sound like a long trial is ahead of him, but he’s actually doing it for work.

The Red Deer architect has just moved his office into the former courtroom of the old Red Deer Courthouse at 4836 50th St. He, along with staff from four other firms, are now in the second floor space where they can work corroboratively on architectural projects.

Hull, who recently worked on the Ronald McDonald House-Central Alberta construction project, teamed up with another architect for this latest business venture.

Grace Zhang recently started her own firm Grace Architecture. She leased the space as part of her working partnership with Hull.

They are excited to be working in a room with its own macabre place in Alberta’s legal history.

Bev Krausher from Great Strides started in hockey before she elegantly walked into the land of gorgeous footwear. Rebels hockey. She was part of the management group responsible for bringing our beloved WHL team to Red Deer. Wanting a change, she knew she was going into business, though she didn’t know what that would look like. It took nine months from conception of the small business idea to birth Great Strides, a Red Deer institution on Little Gaetz. A savvy businesswoman, she just saw a need and was able to meet it. “It would be the same as if Safeway was out of bananas,” she remarked casually. Many women in the area and beyond have gone bananas over her shoes, purses, and accessories in the ten year life-span of her baby.

For the second year, the façade and shopfront improvement program will help businesses of downtown renovate their store fronts.

The Board of the Downtown Business Association believes in the program and wishes to continue the successes from last year. They have decided to expand the program by increasing the funds available by $10,000 to a total of $40,000.00.

The program is aimed at business owners that have store fronts that face streets in the downtown BRZ. The DBA has set aside funds to encourage commercial building owners and business operators to invest in façade renovations and storefront upgrades by providing grants to cover a portion of renovation costs.

The program is intended to:
• Make streets a more inviting and interesting place to walk and shop by enhancing curb appeal
• Develop the natural assets of downtown by restoring the uniqueness, character and integrity of building’s street facing signage or facia
• Help building owners attract and retain tenants and promote the marketability of downtown businesses
• Contribute to the quality of life for residents, workers, visitors and to build civic pride
• Be a catalyst for larger scale building improvements and downtown investment

The program can provide a reimbursement of up to 50 percent of the cost of eligible renovations, up to a maximum of $5,000.00. With the increase in funds set aside, more businesses are eligible for these grants and therefore downtown will continue to be the vibrant and welcoming area that Red Deer citizens have grown to love.

The DBA’s façade and shopfront improvement program has been extended for another year. The project was initiated in 2011, and in this time was a huge success, seeing approximately 90% of the $30 000 allocated to the program being claimed in 2011.

 MNP is sending in the clowns. The established accounting, consulting and tax firm has signed on for the presenting sponsorship of Downtown Red Deer’s Centrefest, “MNP is extremely proud to sponsor Centrefest 2012. Red Deer is a great city, and we are fortunate to host such a premier event for families and residents to attend,” said Dustin Sundby, Regional Managing Partner Central Alberta, “We look forward to working closely with the organizing committee, and our volunteers to make this very special for everyone who attends. The weekend of July 27-29th is going to be amazing, and we can hardly wait to share it with you.”

Centrefest is the largest outdoor festival in the central region of Alberta, boasting almost thirty thousand visitors last year alone. Eye-popping and show-stopping contortionists, jugglers, musicians, and entertainers will come together and thrill crowds outside on the streets for this tenth anniversary celebration July 28 and 29, 2012.

MNP sets a precedent for community-building by providing affordable entertainment, fostering local talent and bringing visitors into the area’s economy through sponsorship. Centrefest will present their tenth anniversary celebration to Red Deer’s downtown and continues to grow with the support of their local partners.

Ten Thousand Villages is excited to announce that they are moving! The store is relocating from Southpointe Common to the historical Bawtinheimer building on Alexander Way (48 Street). The store will be opening its doors Saturday, March 3rdat its new location at 4925 – 48 Street (across the street from the Millenium Centre Parkade). The new store will have a great fresh new look with more space to accommodate a greater selection of fair trade products. New stock has been arriving and you will want to check it out. The store carries jewellery, scarves, bags, fair trade coffee, teas, spices, chocolate and many other unique items including rugs and musical instruments.
Ten Thousand Villages is a fair trade, nonprofit retail outlet that markets products that are handmade by artisans in developing countries. With 47 stores across Canada and online shopping available (www.tenthousandvillages.ca) Ten Thousand Villages is not only Canada’s oldest Fair Trade organization, but also its largest.
The Grand Opening Week starts Saturday, March 3rd. You are invited to come on down and visit Leslie, Store Manager and volunteers at their new location. Store hours are 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday to Saturday.
On Saturday, March 3rd you are invited to join them for cake and coffee and hear featured guest soloist, Kim Thiessen from MCC. She raises funds for various projects for the MCC Relief and Development organization. Thursday, March 8th the official ribbon cutting ceremony will be held at 11:00 a.m. with Mayor Morris Flewwelling and other dignitaries joining them. Stop in for coffee and browse the spring product line. Draw prizes will be held throughout the week. Stop by for a visit at the new Ten Thousand Villages in our revitalized downtown.

DOSE Coffee & Love has opened up on the second floor of Sunworks at 4924 50th (Ross) Street. DOSE is not just any old coffee shop. You won’t find pots filled with generic coffee. What you will find, is owners Rolland Forsland and Alison McCracken using the “pour over” method of coffee making, involving hand grinding the best, most fresh beans, and hand pouring the heated water directly over the bean. The four minute process results in a full bodied, but cleaner and more pure flavor of coffee. The flavor you will find comes directly from the bean.

Downtown Red Deer motorists have much larger fines to worry about when parking downtown. On January 1st, parking fines increased from $30 to $55. Tickets can still be paid prior to the due date, at a rate of $20 rather than the old rate of $10. These fines include those received if your parking meter is not properly filled, not purchasing daily or hourly parking passes in city-owned lots, and parking illegally in any manner.

For more information on parking downtown, visit www.reddeer.ca/parking.
 

We would like to invite all downtown businesses to use the Downtown Red Deer Facebook page and Twitter to advertise your businesses, products and events. With over 150 followers on Facebook, and over 800 followers on Twitter and those numbers growing steadily, these are great tools to use to help promote your business. It is our hope that the Downtown Red Deer Facebook and Twitter end up being used as major hubs to find out what is going on in the downtown, from event information to information in your businesses. Simply “Like” us on Facebook or“Follow” us on Twitter to keep up on what is happening in the downtown!

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The tranformer change out scheduled for December and cancelled is being rescheduled for January 15 from 9 a.m to 4pm. The outage will effect the block between 49th and 50th Avenue on Ross Street. The City of Red Deer would like to apologize for any inconvenience, however the change is necessary and must take place.