The City of Williams Lake’s mural policy has been brought up for review by city council.
Mayor Walt Cobb says the history of the policy started when two murals were brought to the city for funding, but only one was approved.
“A year ago now is when a mural came to the city for assistance to help pay for it. We didn’t run the mural program, it was initiated by the BIA (Business Improvement Area) years ago when Communities in Bloom started, and the mural program came into effect then. I believe it was in 2014, we got a request to fund a mural, and the city decided to put x number of dollars to support it. Last year, the mural program came in and we were asked for funding again. We needed more information and there was a question on whether the mural met the criteria, and it was determined wasn’t any real clear criteria. It was a unanimous decision of council at that particular time, we not fund the mural for the whales on the side of the dry cleaners, but a short time after we funded the moose mural.”
Cobb says he thinks the BIA has done a good job of doing what they’ve done over the years, and there could be a Selection Committee to determine what the murals should like. He says that committee would fine-tune the policy and bring more information back to council.