In an effort to support local businesses impacted by ongoing construction along a main thoroughfare, the Town of Crossfield is offering an incentive program for people who patronize the town’s shops.
According to Christina Waldner, communications and research officer for the Town, the incentive program was launched to encourage residents to shop locally while deep utility replacements are undertaken along Railway Street in Crossfield's downtown.
“We had thought about what we needed to do to keep the businesses still attracting residents while this is all going on, because it’s made it a little more difficult to get into some of the businesses,” she said.
Specifically, the construction has eliminated parking in front of some Crossfield businesses, meaning customers have to park farther away and walk to wherever they’re going.
To address this, the Town has developed a program whereby residents who shop at local businesses can submit a receipt at the Town Office in exchange for prizes.
Depending on the amount of a person’s purchase, Waldner said they will be entered into one of three levels – $10 or less, $11 to $25 or $26 and up. An individual can only submit for each of the levels once.
“You can actually come three times if you want to and get something from each of those three different levels,” Waldner said. “It’s a chance for us to give people something to reward them for shopping on Railway Street and keeping those local businesses open and busy.”
Local banks and the Crossfield Municipal Library are also participating, according to Waldner. Although people aren’t actually buying anything from the banks or library, patrons are provided with a stamped form that can be submitted to the Town.
Depending on the level a person submits for, they could receive prizes including T-shirts, water bottles with a built-in Bluetooth speaker, stainless steel travel mugs or hats. Many of the items are branded with the Town of Crossfield’s logo, Waldner added.
Additionally, every person that submits a receipt will be entered to win the grand prize – a TV. Waldner said each individual can only be entered into the draw once, and the date for the draw has not yet been set.
According to Waldner, the incentive program has been going on since July and was recently extended to Oct. 1. Originally, it was set to finish at the beginning of September. Waldner said the decision to extend the program was influenced by two factors – a significant supply of remaining prizes and the fact the construction work on Railway Street is not finished.
“We wanted to extend this until we were actually closer to finishing the project and not stop it prematurely,” Waldner said.
So far, construction has been completed on five blocks, she said, adding the project began in May and is planned to finish sometime in October.
“This is a nine-block long dig up of the main street in Crossfield, which is Railway Street, to replace some deep servicing,” Waldner said.
Some of the water and wastewater infrastructure buried under Railway Street date back to the 1950s, and “definitely had to be replaced,” she said
“We’re really grateful that town residents are being really patient with us, but we wanted to make sure that we did something for those businesses,” she said.
When the incentive program was launched, Waldner said business owners embraced it. She called the program a “win-win” for local businesses, as it promoted their services but didn’t require them to put in a lot of effort since the onus was on customers to submit the receipts.
According to Waldner, about 55 people had received prizes as of Sept. 3, which she said was, “pretty darn good” for a community of Crossfield’s population.
Ben Sherick, AirdrieToday.com
Follow me on Twitter @BenSherick
