New Westminster - The City of New Westminster Parks and Recreation Department will be activating a Community Message Centre on February 13, 2009. This new Community Message Centre will replace the former 27 year old Read-a-Board sign on the corner of McBride Boulevard and Sixth Avenue.

The new electronic Community Message Centre is capable of posting hundreds of messages per day that can use text, images and video. Jason Haight, the Parks and Recreation Manager of Business Operations, comments “The new Community Message Centre is a state of the art message centre that allows us to electronically design, schedule and promote numerous City and community organization services and opportunities that benefit residents and visitors.”

The Community Message Centre supports the City’s strategic initiatives to promote Neighbourhood Livability, Tourism, Healthy Communities and Individuals as well as the Parks and Recreation Comprehensive and Art Strategy plans. It is expected that the message centre will promote City and community services that will help enhance the quality of life within our community.

Mr. Haight notes, “One of the biggest benefits of the new sign is our ability to meet the volume of message requests. The old Read-a-Board really limited us to one static message per sign side per week. Message requests were definitely higher than our ability to post them. The new Community Message Centre will provide us with the opportunity to post hundreds of full colour messages, on a weekly basis, by means of a computer software system.”

Community organizations interested in posting messages on the Community Message Centre can do so through the City of New Westminster’s website, www.newwestcity.ca, through the on-line services tab.

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Contact:

Jason Haight, Manager of Business Operations
New Westminster Parks and Recreation
Phone: 604-527-4630
jhaight@newwestcity.ca