How does the “Access Communications Civic Centre” sound?
Hockey fans might want to get used to that name or something similar, because that could soon be the new name for the North Battleford Civic Centre, home of the SJHL Battlefords North Stars.
The City of North Battleford announced in a news release that Access Communications Co-operative Ltd. has submitted a proposal for naming rights for the Civic Centre. Details are to be made public once it goes to the full council at their next meeting Sept. 28.
“It is a compelling proposal, and administration will bring the proposal forward to the next council meeting,” said City Manager Randy Patrick in a statement.
Naming rights is something that the city has been looking at for some time as a way to create additional revenue. Last year, the city brought in a naming rights policy to allow for naming rights for various civic facilities including the Civic Centre.
The naming rights proposal from Access Communication comes at a time when Access is becoming even more involved in city facilities.
At Monday’s council meeting, council voted to authorize the mayor and city clerk to execute the sponsorship public Wi-Fi agreement between Access Communications and the City of North Battleford for public Wi-Fi, once the city solicitor’s review is completed. That comes on the heels of the earlier announcement in January that Access would be providing free Wi-Fi at city facilities.
According to a city memo, Access is providing an internal private network at the Twin Rivers Curling Club, the Dekker Centre and for the North Stars to use at no charge, and will be providing special event Wi-Fi for such events as curling camps at no charge.
The first venues for the network are the Dekker Centre and the Aquatic Centre; in the coming weeks Wifi is to be installed at the Field House Sept. 22, Civic Centre Sept. 29, curling rink Oct. 6, Don Ross Arena/Centre on Oct. 13 and City Hall Oct. 20.
Speaking to the meeting on Monday, Martin Smith of Access Communications said of the agreement that “community is what we’re all about, and one way to contribute to our community is the public internet access at no cost.” He thanked the city for “the opportunity to contribute to the city of North Battleford.”
Mayor Ryan Bater called the agreement a “very significant elevation of service to the public at those facilities.”
