OLDS — Town council approved a total of $50,000 worth of grants from Mountain View Power to go to three local organizations.
The Olds Curling Club received $35,000 to buy netting for the ice surface. It will allow local groups like minor baseball, minor softball, minor lacrosse, minor soccer and pickleball clubs to use the curling club floor space in the curling off-season.
The Mountain View Nordic Ski Club received $10,000 to help cover the cost to purchase a snow machine.
Another $5,000 went to the Olds Fashioned Christmas committee for their Undercover Elf event, held Dec. 8 at the Community Connections Centre. It was a chance for kids age three to 12 to pick out and wrap gifts.
Mountain View Power used to be a wing of the defunct Olds Institute. It’s now owned by the town through O-NET.
It sells natural gas and electricity to homes and businesses in Olds and surrounding areas on behalf of UtilityNET, a Calgary based energy retailer.
The community grants program, approved by council earlier, was implemented to provide financial assistance towards projects/events/ activities that enhance and enrich the community.
The policy, approved during a July 10 council meeting, says MVP "will invest its profits back into the community to build a stronger and more vibrant town and region.”
Chief administrative officer Brent Williams told council that in his recollection, the Mountain View Power (MVP) Community Grants Committee received 11 applications for funds.
However, he said, under the policy, some were deemed ineligible “because they are eligible under different funding streams through the town, FCSS primarily.”
The committee reviewed eight applications requesting a total of $125,000 worth of grants.
A couple of councillors asked for clarification on what the curling club wanted to use its grant for.
Williams said it’s his understanding that the newly-elected executive of the curling club expressed interest in, for the first time, allowing the floor of the facility to be used by other groups or teams during the off-season.
“To do that, it required protective netting and a few other modifications be installed to obviously protect the surrounding assets.
“So they received two quotes for that netting and other improvements and the lowest quote was $35,000,” he said.
Williams said the committee really liked that concept.
“The idea (of) opening up additional floor space, especially in those shoulder seasons for various user groups, whether that be for soccer, baseball, lacrosse etc. was a high priority,” he said.
