SUNDRE — Council approved allocating just shy of $20,000 to several local groups and businesses that had applied for funding in the municipality’s 2021 Grants to Organizations program’s first round of intakes.
The move came by way of motion during the regular Feb. 8 council meeting conducted by teleconference and following an individual assessment of each application by the grant review committee, which includes a couple of councillors.
“(There was) a lot of interest this time around — we had 14 applications totalling $122,174,” said Linda Nelson, chief administrative officer.
“And of course, we have limited funds,” she said, adding the review committee had recently met to discuss in-depth and consider the merits of each one.
Groups and businesses will also have an opportunity to apply for additional funding during the second round of intakes later this year.
The administrator sought council’s support and approval of the review committee’s recommendation to provide funding to seven groups and businesses in the amount of $19,642.
Initiating a brief discussion, Coun. Rob Wolfe moved as such.
Coun. Richard Warnock, who sits on the review committee, spoke in favour of the motion and said pros and cons were carefully deliberated at length during the difficult process to narrow down the originally requested $122,000 to within the budgeted $25,000 for the first intake.
“There were some applications that we required more information for,” said Warnock, adding administration was directed to contact those groups to provide those details for further consideration when the second round of intakes begins.
“There’s some of them we just could not support because of the size,” he said.
“And the direction was that we could not pay for any staffing or administration costs within a grant application,” he added in explaining how the committee arrived at its recommendation.
Without further discussion, Mayor Terry Leslie called a vote on the motion, which carried unanimously.
The grant’s recipients were:
- Emeralds & Lace, Moe Fahey, who received a one-time $1,900 grant for property development and improvement including benches, flower boxes, awnings, paint and curb stops;
- Sundre Pickleball Club, which received a one-time $5,000 grant for community recreation programming in support of rehabilitating the tennis courts;
- Boondox Family Restaurant, which received a one-time $1,500 grant for property development/improvement for new signage;
- Sundre Volunteer Search & Rescue Society, which received a one-time $3,242 grant to enable the purchase of medical and rescue equipment;
- Sundre Daycare, which received a one-time $2,500 grant for program enhancement including field trips and teaching life skills;
- Byma Land and Cattle Ltd., which received a one-time $3,000 grant for the construction of rustic-themed veranda, painting, and landscaping improvements;
- And the Sundre Rodeo & Race Association, which received a one-time $2,500 grant to contribute to the advertising campaign for the annual rodeo event.
