By Sheldon Spackman and Josh Hall

New sign welcomes visitors to Red Deer

Feb 8, 2019 | 2:31 PM

Local motorists and visitors alike will notice a new ‘Welcome’ sign installed at Red Deer’s revamped south entrance.

The sign has been erected at the new QE II/Gaetz Ave. Interchange ahead of the 2019 Canada Winter Games.  

Julia Harvie-Shemko, Director of Communications & Strategic Planning for the City of Red Deer says the opportunity to install new signage came up last year when the new interchange was being built by the province.

“There was an opportunity to partner with the province and some of the costs for the sign in terms of what they had to do to the ground and get it ready for a sign,” she explains. “So it was really a good opportunity for us to welcome people and really highlight that main entrance before the Games.”

Harvie-Shemko says the sign aims to reflect Red Deer’s growth into a larger city.

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“We may be one of the mid-sized cities but we really are working ourselves into a big city and a modern city,” says Harvie-Shemko. “Also welcoming people to Red Deer, not everybody knows where the boundary of Red Deer actually is, so it was partly to signify where that boundary is.”

In terms of the look of the new sign, as well as the separate structure situated across the road, Harvie-Shemko says it does have meaning.

“The red part is all ribbons which signifies our connection to each other and to nature,” she says. “It’s kind of the same flow as the Waskasoo Park and the river going through our city, and then it ends in a pair of stylized antlers to really connect to our Red Deer name.”

The City had three companies come up with the design, and Harvie-Shemko adds that the manufacturing was done by an Edmonton company. It was also a project conducted outside of The City’s Public Art Commission.

Harvie-Shemko says both The City and province teamed up to pay for the sign (and separate structure), with city council budgeting just over a million dollars for Red Deer’s share.

“Right now, this is the only one that’s planned because it is our main entrance,” adds Harvie-Shemko. “It is now, though, the look we will be going for if we do other ones at other entrances in the future. They would not be as grand as this one, but there could be other ‘looks’ in the future. Nothing is planned at this point.”