Rutland’s sense of place
Small Shop
Rutland is so much more than a Kelowna neighbourhood. With about a third of the city’s population, its own commercial core and own civic events, it really is its own distinct community within Kelowna.
The Uptown Rutland Business Association is promoting that sense of place, as well as Rutland’s ties to the City of Kelowna with the renewal of a five-year business improvement area contract.
The contract sees additional taxes collected from businesses in Rutland’s commercial core in the Highway 33 corridor to fund the Uptown association and its initiatives.
Those initiatives range from town centre beautification, attracting more businesses and housing to promoting the community’s proximity to UBC Okanagan and Big White Ski Resort and putting on events such as the Easter Egg Hunt, Small Business Expo, Uptown Rutland Car Show, Nine & Dine Golf and Networking, Scarecrow Festival, Grub Crawl and Christmas Light Up.
Uptown Rutland’s recent annual general meeting saw the strategic plan outlined and the 2018 board elected.
– president: Dawn Thiessen, Aphrodite in Me Spa
– past-president: Mike Koutsantonis, Olympia Greek Taverna
– Jamie Needham, Interior Savings Credit Union – Mark Beaulieu, Flashpoint Tattoo – Curtis Fieseler, Revolution Pharmacy – June Forman, MCC Thrift Shop – Kamal Shoranick, MKS Resources – Ruby Dulay, Centex Gas – Shelley Kvamme-MacDonald, chartered professional accountant – Dallas Crick, Century 21 – Nick Aubin, notary public – Brad Sieben, City of Kelowna councillor
– Tracy Gray, City of Kelowna councillor – Frank Pohland, CTQ Consultants – Kevin McDougall, community policing
The community is named after pioneer John Rutland, who introduced the irrigation to the region that spawned a vibrant orchard industry that thrives to this day. For 15 years, CTQ Engineering Consultants has quietly been lending its expertise to such high-profile Okanagan projects as the expansions of Vernon Jubilee Hospital and Kelowna General Hospital, Kelowna’s new police detachment, the West Harbour waterfront neighbourhood, Gallagher’s Canyon golf community, UBC Okanagan’s geothermal and infrastructure upgrades, Tower Ranch golf community and the new Memorial Parkade.
CTQ is also providing engineering, planning and design services for JoeAnna’s House, the facility that will offer short-term accommodation for families of out-of-town patients being treated at Kelowna General Hospital.
Additionally, the company is marking its 15th year by making two long-time employees partners and hiring key professionals to expand its services.
Civil engineer Steve Tobler and chief financial officer Andrew Zelke have now joined the partnership team.
Engineer Antonio Faccini from Colombia has joined the company, as have designers and technical members Irene Glotze, Keanan Millar and Steven Hunter.
Bryan Chabeniuk is leading CTQ’s charge into offering geographic information systems mapping in-house.
Geographic information systems is a computer program that can store and analyze client’s data to make the best project decisions.
The mapping can also be accessed and viewed in the field on a smart phone or tablet.
Over 100 stores, restaurants and businesses in downtown Kelowna have sales, special deals and demonstrations today as part of Small Shop Saturday.
Small Shop is a quarterly promotion that been going on for years to encourage locals to shop local and independent stores and keep the downtown vibrant.
Parking on the street and in city-owned lots and parkades is free today.
Steve MacNaull is The Okanagan Weekend’s business and wine reporter and columnist. Reach him at steve.macnaull@ok.bc.ca.