CARP – The community of Carp already knows how awesome their village is, so the Village of Carp Business Improvement Area (BIA) is trying to reach a little further out with their latest project.

Carp BIA board member Tara Azulay sat down for a coffee with West Carleton Online March 1 at Alice’s Café – one of the not-so-hidden gems of the village.

“So, for the last little while we have been putting out the Carp Villager,” Azulay said. “It is pretty editorial heavy, with some profiles of our businesses. We felt Carp’s becoming a destination spot. So, we felt it was time to reach out to the broader community – not just Carp.”

Azulay said she was having a coffee one day and leafing through Carleton Place’s visitor guide a couple of months ago.

“I said, we have to do this here, let’s not re-invent the wheel,” she said. “It was a pretty quick decision for the board.”

The board has agreed to publish a 24-page glossy magazine with a four-page insert.

Azulay says it will be about a 50-50 ratio of editorial content and local ads promoting local businesses while the editorial content will focus on “how to spend the day in Carp.”

The insert will focus on Village of Carp BIA news.

The plan is to publish 2,500 copies and distribute them at “peak locations in the village.”

Azulay says the board is still working on ideas on how to reach out to neighbouring communities so they can distribute the visitor’s guide outside of West Carleton.

The BIA is currently working on attracting advertisers and Azulay says they are almost sold out.

“We’ve had such a great response,” Azulay said. “It was immediate, and we’re almost done, so, pretty cool.”

Advertising has a March 31 deadline before work moves to putting the magazine together.

“I hope it’s ready by spring and we’ll see how it goes,” she said.

Azulay says the BIA has “kind of resurrected itself” over the last year.

“It takes some pretty committed people,” she said. “There are some people who are really committed to Carp. It’s an exciting time in the village. We’re just getting started. There are other things on the go.”

For more information on the Carp BIA, visit their Facebook page.