Though there was considerably less discussion than in the excited days immediately following the Penticton Vees national championship run, Penticton council endorsed the plan to rename a street Vees Drive this week.
Council endorsed the road name change for the north portion of Railway Street to Vees Drive, as well as setting aside $3,500 to cover the administrative costs for businesses to change their road name, and additional signage erected along Highway 97 with the permission of the Ministry of Transport to identify Vees Drive.
The plan came before council in June, not long after the Vees claimed the national championship, as a way to honour both the current team’s record-breaking season and the 1955 world champion Vees as a recommendation from the Heritage and Museum Advisory Committee.
Council had hoped to be able to make the change before the start of the Vees season in September, but Anthony Haddad, director of development services, warned there would be considerable consultation, especially with the 18 businesses located in the short block. He says it will still be a few weeks before everything can be arranged.
“Now that council has endorsed that road name change, we are working with Canada Post, the businesses that are affected by the road name change and also the Penticton Vees in terms of planning celebrations and figuring out an effective date,” said Haddad. “We want to give the business at least three to four weeks before the road name changes takes place. Canada Post has given a free one year mail redirect for each of the businesses that are effected.”
There is more going on than just ordering new street signs and putting them in place. They are also planning things like working with the Vees in terms of putting banners in the streets.
“The light standards in those streets are set up for banners, so it is not going to be just the street name, there is going to be a bit more to it, which will form part of the celebration with the Vees at an appropriate time,” said Haddad, adding that the city’s public works department is working on a design for the new street signs.
“We want to make them a bit more prominent than the typical road sign,” he said. “In the next couple of weeks, hopefully we will have more to release on that.”