The Burns Lake and District Chamber of Commerce’s nomadic days are over with them finally moving to a new, permanent location.
The chamber moved to 132a Francois Lake Drive at the beginning of this year after the village decided to not renew their lease at the Heritage Centre. The chamber has now moved to 258 Hwy. 16, uphill from Home Hardware.
Chamber Manager Randi Amendt told Lakes District News that Greg Brown of Home Hardware, who was also a past president and whose grandfather, John S. Brown founded the chamber in Burns Lake, have leased the spot to the chamber at a very low rate as a forever home for the organization.
The new location is a large property right behind Home Hardware on the hill, and will be one of the first places visible for folks coming into Burns Lake from the Hwy. 16E. This is also a major reason why Amendt wants to make the place as inviting and welcoming as possible.
The chamber has already set up a shed on the property, with timber donated by Babine Forest Products.
The chamber will be having their ice cream shop, a regular fixture of pop-up shops year round, tons of parking space and have even planned to put in place several picnic benches. Amendt also talked about a possibility of an RV parking and a dog watering station at the new location.
“We already had three to four cars stop by yesterday at this new location, just as a rest stop. So adding the picnic tables, having the ice cream shop, and then being able to send off visitors to the local businesses would be great,” she said.
This year, the chamber is also moving the community market from the CNC parking lot to their new location. The market will also run for longer, from June 11 until the end of August instead of just in the months of July and August.
“I don’t have to limit the number of vendors this year because of all this space,” said Amendt, adding that she already have five people who had paid for their spots and few more who had expressed interest in participating in the market this year.
This year, the chamber will also be hosting Tweedsmuir Day celebrations along with Canada Day and will be planning several, socially distanced events.
Currently the chamber is working on painting and adding finishing touches to the new spot but the chamber is open for visitors between Monday to Friday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Priyanka Ketkar
Multimedia journalist
@PriyankaKetkar
priyanka.ketkar@ldnews.net
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