Thousands of Prince George commuters will soon see new signage along one of the city’s most recognizable streets.
The city has announced a new partnership that’s finalized the renaming of Ospika Boulevard to ‘HYPG Blvd.’ following a months-long collaboration with businesses and local Facebook Group ‘Hell Yeah Prince George!’
Prince George city councillor Kyle Sampson, who was the on-site acting Mayor to present the first sign, says the new ones are expected to be up by June 1, 2021, and believes it was time for a change in keeping up with the youthful energy of the northern capital.
“When Dave [Mothus] reached out to me, I initially suggested an attempt to rename a park or a different road,” Sampson explained.
“But he raised a good point when he asked me, ‘What is an Ospika anyways?’, to which I didn’t know without using Google - so I thought why not rename it to be something we all know!
“We hope our community embraces this change as well as they embrace all change!”
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Ospika Boulevard is a 15-kilometre thoroughfare and acts as one of the main arteries in the city, running north to south from the Heritage area to College Heights.
Due to budgetary constraints of the project, Sampson says he was concerned with the city needing to find the finances to replace all the signs, business letterhead and road maps, which was going to be outside its budget.
Local auto-dealership Wood Wheaton was then approached by HYPG to potentially pay for all the new ‘HYPG Blvd.’ signs and has since agreed to cover 100 per cent of the costs associated with the project.
“Why? Because we couldn’t think of a better way to highlight what a positive force HYPG has been in our community for all these years,” says General Manager Don Willimont, noting the total cost, however, is still being calculated.
“We are very proud to be partnering on this project and giving well deserved recognition to the entire HYPG Community - including the 40,000 group members!”
HYPG spokesperson David Mothus says he’s continuously thrilled to see the Facebook page grow over the years.
So much so that he explains some businesses along Ospika Boulevard are wanting to follow suit in changing their names.
“We are told Ospika Veterinary Clinic is already prepared to become HYPG Veterinary Clinic,” said Mothus, adding he really wants to advocate for another major name change to a Prince George landmark.
“Next year, I am hoping we can get the Regional District of Fraser-Fort George to officially change the name of Foothills Landfill to ‘WTF PG Dump.’”
