Ferndale WA Forms Olympic Adhoc Committee
Ferndale WA - According to the Ferndale Record Journal the city of Ferndale has formed an adhoc Olympic Committee in an effort to identify marketing ideas to attract visitors during the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Games. The Winter Olympics will be held in British Columbia from February 12-28, 2010. Following the Winter Olympics will be the Vancouver Paralympic games from March 12-21, 2010.
Some members of the committee include, City of Ferndale Councilman Jim Elliott, Ferndale Chamber of Commerce Director Guy Occhiogrosso, and Planning Department administrative assistant Kathryn Morice. The group is looking for ideas from area citizens and those with the best ideas will win a prize. If anyone has any ideas get ahold of the Ferndale Chamber of Commerce with some ideas and attractions Ferndale might want to consider for February 2010.
Being that the event will be held during the winter, it’s probably going to be a tough go in attracting visitors to the city. The city should begin by working with the Department of Transportation and see if together they can finally clean up the mess of wild black berry bushes, and deciduous trees that grow wild on both sides of the freeway where I-5 and Main Street exit meet. In the real estate business…street appeal is everything. I can envision it all being cleaned up and of course keeping the Fir trees that are natural to the area, and adding in some nice landscaping. Otherwise Exit 262 at Ferndale will probably be just another exit to pass on the way to the games for most Winter Olympic travelers.
I would also add a nice sign saying “Welcome Olympic Traveler’s” and below “Ferndale, Washington” Put the sign along the freeway in a non obtrusive location…but well placed so people will see it. The City is going to have to come up with something exciting and enticing to make travelers want to stop and visit. The visionaries need to think in the way most travelers would be coming into hearing about Ferndale for the first time. Creating a web site now with the upcoming Olympics in mind would be my suggestion. I guess they could also utilize the city’s website or the Chambers by creating some new pages to those sites and optimizing those pages. Add information to attract Internet visitors looking for “things to do” in Whatcom County while they are here visiting.
Even if the city doesn’t have enough things to pull that many visitor’s off the travels to Vancouver, at least Ferndale could plant a seed in their thoughts for visiting during warmer weather or at a future date.
One Idea that I could imagine is that if the city would use both Pioneer park and Hovander park as a temporary spot where RV traveler’s could rent space and park their rigs during the month of February and March 2010. All those temporary visitors would probably end up spending time and money in the Ferndale area. It would just be a temporary thing and end with the conclusion of the games. I would also have a couple big tents on sight to promote local business’s, events, etc. and serve food as well. It would be better to rent those two spaces for that purpose instead of like Haggen’s parking lot…because with the influx of visitors to the area…stores would be busy and need all their spaces.
Jerry Campbell - Muljat Group - Bellingham WA - Ferndale WA Real Estate