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“It's always a pleasure to meet with the business community and the chamber of commerce and just bring them an update of where the City of Morden is at [to] recapitulate last year and give them an idea of where we're headed.”
This is what Mayor Nancy Penner says of Morden’s State of the City Address, which took place on April 10th this year.
Suncatch Plaza
One of the topics in the speech that caught attendees' attention was a new compromise regarding Suncatch Plaza, the market square in Morden between Appelt’s Diamonds and the clock tower on 8th Street.
In past years, the area has been closed to traffic and opened to pedestrians for a significant portion of the summer.
It’s something about which the Morden Chamber of Commerce has expressed concern.
“The Chamber was working on behalf of their business community, and they didn't want to see that space closed for the nine weeks during the summer,” says Mayor Penner.
A compromise for the summer
As a compromise, Suncatch Plaza will be limited to pedestrian traffic from Thursday to Sunday for six weekends in the summer.
The street closure will accommodate the summer concert series Crocus Suncatch Sounds on Friday nights and Morden’s farmer’s market on Thursdays.
“We might as well keep it closed on Saturday and Sunday and provide programming during that whole weekend,” says Mayor Penner. “We feel that's a fair compromise with the business community and the [broader] community.”
‘A nice balanced approach’
For Tyler Schroeder, the president of the Morden Chamber of Commerce, the Suncatch announcement is one result of the organization's dialogue with the city.
“We have been fortunate to have many great conversations with the City of Morden over the past year, and a lot of that is through the advocacy lens that we've recently adopted at the board of directors and organizational level where we are trying to be more in tune with the issues of the day for our members,” he says.
“We first started with wastewater, a big topic but very important, and next, we went on to the Suncatch. Our local downtown business community had voiced a desire to have the Suncatch still be there throughout the summer but in a modified version.”
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The Chamber believes the new compromise provides "a nice balanced approach.”
“We're thankful for the dialogue that we had with the city [and] that they listened to the feedback from our members,” says Schroeder. “We want this Suncatch Plaza to be successful, and I think this is a good next effort that gives us an opportunity to bring some vibrant activity to our downtown while addressing some of the downtown business owners’ concerns.”
Other key issues
Mayor Penner says the State of the City Address included other key issues, such as wastewater and the expansion of the industrial park.
The latter is in its first phase. Mayor Penner says the city hopes to have lots for sale in the fall.
The address also touched on education, namely network administration programs through the Manitoba Institute of Trades and Technology (MITT) that will be instituted in fall of this year.
Another topic was Morden Community Development Corporation’s purchase of Boundary Trails Place, which Mayor Penner says may open new healthcare possibilities for the future.
Mayor Penner also addressed Morden's budget in her speech. To read the particulars of 2025's budget, click here.
With files from Robyn Wiebe