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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
The City of Yellowknife and local businesses stepped up efforts to beautify the community this year, with $41,500 donated and spent toward the cause.

Guy Architect's co-workers, Chrissy Taylor and Mark Gumienny, enjoy the new parking stalls outside their Old Town location. Guy Architect received $11,000 for the project from the City of Yellowknife to help beautify the city. - Sara Wilson NNSL photo

Seven businesses were awarded grants in 2011 to improve facade and site improvements, with just one pulling out due to a lack of resources.

Six of the businesses: Megsie Development, Guy Architects, Life Care Planning, Bayside Bed and Breakfast, Holy Trinity Anglican Church and Nadji Architects, received their grant money and have put the dollars to work.

Bayside Bed and Breakfast at 3505 MacDonald Drive in Old Town – which received $8,000 from the city – paved their driveway, landscaped the front of the business and planted 12 birch trees to help beautify their location, according to its owner and manager Debbie Dody.

Guy Architects, which received the largest proportion of grant funding - $11,000 – put the money to use beautifying 3528 Macdonald Drive with 11 new parking stalls that have been landscaped. Two more are being planned, as well.

"They're coming up nicely," said Wayne Guy, principle architect with Guy Architects. "It will be a nice improvement. It's a great incentive by the city."

Guy Architects was awarded a total of $11,000 by the city and, according to Guy, the company spent close to $24,000 on the upgrades, of which the city contributed $6,000 toward the project based on amount of work completed last year. When remaining work is completed the business will receive the remaining $5,000, according to Mayor Gord Van Tighem.

Nadji Architects's principle architect Kayhan Nadji said the company at 3601 Franklin Avenue spent its $3,000 on new exterior windows, paving the front, new flower boxes and planters, and exterior doors.

Life Care Planning's idea was to use their $8,500 granted to them by the city to construct a ramp to access the building at 4903 47th Street.

Construction is underway, but Marion Hutton, owner of Life Care Planning, did not comment about the expected date of completion.

Megsie Development co-owner John Williston who owns the building where the downtown Subway is located – used the $4,000 in grant money from the city to re pave the parking lot and commissioned an artistic planter. Due to artistic difficulties for the planter, to project isn't finished yet, but it is excepted to be completed in the near future.

"We spent $12,000 on paving and $10,000 on the planter," Williston said. "It's going to be neat, pretty and bullet-proof."

The SideDoor Youth Centre on 50 Street was awarded a grant, but organizers decided to take their beautification efforts to the downtown core in another direction.

"The grants were matching grants," said Garry Hubert, executive director of the youth centre. "The work we wanted to do was estimated at $50,000."

The not-for-profit organization decided that the price tag was too much for the youth centre. Instead, they took matters into their own hands.

"I think we have the most beautiful corner in the downtown," Hubert said.

Representatives from the Holy Trinity Anglican Church downtown on 4909 52 Street, which received $7,000 could not be contacted by press time.

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