In contrast, after almost 30 months of doing the same with the City of Corner Brook, he still doesn’t know if it will be possible to put a sign in the downtown area of the city.
Brake, owner of Digital Advertising Solutions, spoke out in March about his frustration with dealing with the city to expand his indoor digital signage business to the outdoors.
An application to establish a business in Deer Lake was approved by the town’s council on May 2, and Brake is now in the process of getting all the paperwork signed. He’s also working with the town to fine tune his plan to put up a sign, on which he’ll sell third-party advertising in the area of Commerce Street.
When asked why he decided to take his business to Deer Lake, Brake said, “I heard they were more open to business.” He said he tried to finish the process in Corner Brook, but after all the time and effort put into his plan, he couldn’t just let it go.
About a week ago, he was informed by the city via email that it had decided to put the issue of signage to public consultation. That email came 867 days after he made initial contact with the city and, while Brake supports the idea of public consultation, he said it shouldn’t take so long to make the decision.
He questioned the timeframe of the consultation process, but said he wasn’t given anything “real solid” to go on.
“Corner Brook is on one end of the spectrum and Deer Lake is on the other end,” Brake said. “They were listening, they were actively listening.”
He knows the town did its due diligence, reviewed his application documents, discussed it as a council and granted approval.
But he’d still like to see his digital signs in Corner Brook and hopes to get approval on the permit applications he’s submitted.
While he feels the city knows his position on the issue, he’ll participate in the consultation process to register his “official input.”
