CP BIA asks Santa Claus parade floats to band together

Posted Feb 2, 2012 By Desmond Devoy

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speaks at the Carleton Place town hall auditorium at the BIA's annual general meeting on Thursday, Jan. 26.

speaks at the Carleton Place town hall auditorium at the BIA's annual general meeting on Thursday, Jan. 26.

EMC News - When it comes to the Santa Claus Parade, less is more.

After hearing complaints that the Carleton Place Business Improvement Area's (BIA) annual Santa Claus Parade down Bridge Street was too long, Paul Sorfleet, the BIA chairperson, is asking participating businesses to do more with less.

"Our parades are very popular, and that has become a bit of a problem," Sorfleet said during a speech at the BIA's annual general meeting at the town hall on Jan. 26.

"I think we need to raise the bar a little. We are the biggest parade in the Valley," and with that, many area businesses want to take part.

But Sorfleet noted that he wanted to see quality, not quantity, and used the example of floats put forward by several car dealerships as just one example.

"Of all of the car dealers in town ... (instead of several separate floats) they could co-operate and pool their resources," said Sorfleet. "We could have a big, beautiful float, rather than a lot of little ones."

Because the CP parade is the biggest in the Valley, Sorfleet added that the parade needs at least 50 volunteers to be carried off successfully.

"It's not to say that they are not successful," he stressed of the Santa Claus and Maskeraid Halloween Parade in October. "But there is room for improvement."

Another area for improvement is extending the Christmas lighting along Bridge Street onto the bridge itself.

"It is our hope that we can get electricity on the bridge so that we can extend it (the lights)," said Sorfleet. "Hopefully we can get lights that match the rest of the lights on Bridge Street."

While Market Square on nearby Beckwith Street will not be officially opened for another few months, the BIA is already making use of it.

"We were the first to fill Market Square and it isn't even officially opened yet," said Sorfleet, because it was a staging area for the Christmas parade.