By Justine Kelsie

Rice retires, new Executive Director hired for Downtown Association

Aug 30, 2018 | 2:26 PM

Helen Rice has made a slow transition into retirement over the past few years as she steps away from her position as Manager of the Grande Prairie Downtown Association.*

A couple years ago she stepped away from the Alberta Urban Municipalities Association board and in the most recent municipal election, she decided not to run again for a position on Grande Prairie City Council. She will maintain her spot on the Board of Directors for Energy Efficiency Alberta as well as the position of Chair for their audit committee. Rice will also keep her spot on the Local Government Managers Association.

Although her thoughts about retirement are all over the place, Rice says she is happy that she phased out her workload the way she did. 

“It is sort of up and down. It is exciting, it is also ‘oh my goodness, did I get everything done that I wanted to do’ and ‘how will I stop myself from butting my nose in for the next months or weeks or years’. I go all over the landscape I guess you could say.”

Wendy Bosch will take on the role of Executive Director for the DTA.

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“The important thing is to make sure the downtown remains a strong force in the regional market and the big advantage of the association is the members with their commitment to making the downtown strong. I think Wendy will do fabulous at that.”

What will Rice do with all of her spare time after about 17 years with the association? She says she might dig into some books as well as visit with friends and family. 

“When you are used to going at a thousand miles an hour, seven days a week and then it is like ‘okay, it is five o’clock and I don’t have anything to do tonight’, it takes a little bit of an adjustment to say ‘oh and that is a good thing’.” 

She has a few days left in the office. There will be a ribbon-cutting ceremony held on September 5 for people to meet Bosch. 

** Correction: an earlier version of this story stated that Rice was the President of the Association.