The first of 72 new banners was raised on a downtown utility pole on Nov. 3.
Stacey Barnes, the executive assistant with the Town of Hay River, displays a couple of the 72 new banners which will adorn the downtown area.
By the middle of this week, all of the banners are expected to be hanging with most displaying images of the community and others promoting the upcoming Arctic Winter Games (AWG).
Stacey Barnes, executive assistant with the Town of Hay River, said the banners will span the downtown from the Visitor Information Centre to the schools, and along all downtown streets.
"Our theme was 'Arctic Winter Games and Beyond', so we're incorporating as much of the Arctic Winter Games as we can, as well as trying to beautify the downtown," she said.
The images of the town and area on the banners will include a fishing boat, northern lights, waterfalls, Fisherman's Wharf, the beach and more.
"It's all local photography," noted Barnes. "It's just great images from around the town."
The new banners are part of a downtown beautification initiative supported with about $420,000 from the federal government's Canada 150 Community Infrastructure Program.
Barnes, who is overseeing the initiative for the town, said the banners promoting that event may be replaced with others featuring images of the town after the Arctic Winter Games are over.
Plus, she said the town and AWG banners will not interfere with the traditional banners for Christmas.
Those banners will be added to the utility poles as usual sometime after Remembrance Day.
The downtown beautification initiative under the Canada 150 Community Infrastructure Program began in the summer with sidewalk work along Woodland Drive and the addition of large photographs of the town to the council chambers.
Upcoming improvements – some of them to happen next spring – will include new benches, garbage recycling bins, bike parking, planter pots and trees, along with an updated sign for the Visitor Information Centre.
In addition, metal garbage cans around town will soon have wraps incorporating the logo of the Arctic Winter Games.
And later this month an eight-by-12-foot mosaic mural will be created for the new rec centre.