If you are a regular follower of this page, you’ve become all too familiar with my repeated attempts to make sure residents have properly displayed civic signs!
Well, I thought it was only fitting, with December marking one year since the initiative truly began, to provide a brief update.
It all started when myself, along with my fellow firefighters were delivering letters on behalf of Santa Claus and were struggling to locate homes.
I thought in my head, if we can’t find these properties for non-emergency related business, how are we supposed to find them when there is an emergency.
With lots of planning, phone calls and connections, I began working on a multi-month educational video with numerous agencies partnering, including Fire, Police, EHS, local businesses and organizations.
Along the way, I provided educational resources on this page such as how civic signs should be displayed, learned about bylaws and procedures that were in place, throughout municipalities, while sharing them and why civic signs should be displayed and who supplies them.
I also distributed letters to each of the municipalities in Kings County raising my concerns and suggesting courses of action to help improve the ongoing issue.
During my video project, myself, along with a handful of others, surveyed over 6,000 properties across Annapolis, Hants and Kings Counties.
The numbers were staggering, with 61% of properties not having a civic sign, or they were displayed improperly, making them not visible.
Just recently, I was able to fundraise and supply over 40 residents in the community of West Dalhousie with a civic sign and post free of charge.
While working on the video project, I was able to make a great connection with the union that represents postal workers, who provided a gracious donation for this specific project in Annapolis County.
The posts that I have been using to display the signs are regularly purchased through Home Hardware. With the support of the Lawrie Group of Home Hardwares they were able to supply dozens of posts free of charge.
With many helping hands, including Coldbrook Lions, John Barrett, resident Sindy Schofield, Annapolis Ground Search and Rescue and Bridgetown Fire, we not only supplied the signs, we even installed them!
Through my video project I was able to make a long lasting connection and good friend, John Barrett, with the Coldbrook & District Lions Club.
At the time, John was just taking over the civic sign program with the club. The volunteer organization, provides civic signs for community members for a fair price.
These civic signs are hand made by lion member John, where the money goes back to the organization and into the community.
Little did he know he’d have his work cut out for him by meeting me!
We’re very alike, we both volunteer in our communities and are always willing to give a helping hand.
His role in this initiative, particularly in the valley, has been extremely valuable, working with me and supplying hundreds of residents in the Annapolis Valley with highly reflective civic signs.
Since John has taken over the civic sign program, which was last February, he has made an astounding 350+ civic signs, that have been sold and given to those who have ordered. This number continues to climb each day, with orders coming in regularly, keeping him busy and on his toes.
During this project I’ve also had the pleasure of meeting with the Onslow Belmont Fire Brigade in Colchester County, who have been running a successful civic sign project.
With their support, we were able to adopt their process, which I was able to provide to John to help make his civic sign program more effective.
The biggest challenge with emergency services or anyone who is attempting to locate a property, is finding it before your on top of it.
Having a civic displayed at the end of a driveway entrance facing both directions of travel is crucial to locating a property in a timely manner, reducing the chances of passing it before arriving.
The system that Onslow uses is exactly that, they install their signs at the end of a driveway so it can be visible from both directions.
They use a post that can easily be placed in the ground which already have the holes cut out in the post. It requires a few holes in the sign and some nuts and bolts, making for a very easy installation.
From the beginning of the project, across the Annapolis Valley, there was a huge gap where there wasn’t a civic sign or it was improperly displayed.
I think it’s a fair statement, from my perspective, that almost 80% of the properties I surveyed in Kings County last year now have signs installed including a number of other areas across the valley.
The increase in visibility, in many locations where signs were displayed improperly or lacking, is very heartwarming.
Civic signs save lives, while providing first responders with a key piece of identification to your property in a timely manner along with helping essential services locate you easier.
This huge endeavour would not have been possible without the help from many key players, the support of my close friends and a number of great connections.
Progress is slowly being made and I’m sure that one of the hundreds of signs that have been installed will definitely make a difference!
Adrian J.
