submitted by Deron Johnston

With a new year upon us and the recent election of a new Board of Management for the Old Town Kemptville BIA, the BIA is poised to begin a new era in the revitalization of Downtown Kemptville.

It’s hard not to look forward to 2023 with rose-coloured glasses on. There is a big pile of positive things stacking up for Downtown Kemptville, but as we’ve witnessed over the past four years, it will require a significant team effort from a small but mighty group of passionate volunteers to make it all happen.

The Board of the Old Town Kemptville BIA has long been populated by those passionate volunteers who have generously given their knowledge, experience, time and energy to make Downtown Kemptville the type of place that everyone would want to open a business in.

The BIA wants to express its gratitude to the following community volunteers who were the final directors on the Old Town Kemptville BIA Board of Management for the term ending in 2022: Meagan Cumming, Will Pearl, Sierra Jones-Martel, Omshanti Charlebois, Shelley Mitchell, Anne Walsh and Councillor Debbie Wilson.

The BIA also would like to acknowledge former Board directors: Paul Cormier, Connie Lamble, Stephen Bent, Ken Schliemann, Lee McIlvenna, Jim McManaman, Kim Smalridge and anyone else who we’ve forgotten to mention. Every one of these individuals contributed directly to the success and progress of the BIA.

One of the primary reasons that the BIA has become such a strong presence in Downtown Kemptville over the past couple of years is due to the generosity of Omshanti and Rob Charlebois. They allowed the BIA to set up an office inside their business at the Bodhi Tree Yoga Centre. B.T. (as it has become known) quickly became the geographical heart of the BIA hosting many activities and community events based out of their unique space. We want to extend a big heartfelt thanks to the Bodhi Tree crew for their support of the BIA.

Of course, so much of what the BIA does would simply not be possible without the support of the Municipality of North Grenville staff and Council. They are true partners in every sense of the word. Economic Development Officer Matt Gilmer deserves special recognition for everything that he does behind the scenes, including working with the Executive Director on an almost daily basis and supporting the Board through regular monthly meetings and correspondence.

There are many other partners that should be acknowledged, and we wish that we had the space to highlight them all, but we wanted to make sure that we told our friends at the North Grenville Public Library and the North Grenville Historical Society how much we appreciate their contributions. 

 

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