Gibsons committee of the whole saw a full house on April 7 as the first round of grants of assistance was presented to council.
Director of finance Ian Poole presented this list of allocated funds for groups on the Sunshine Coast who requested an assistance grant from the Town. While staff agreed that all applicants were deserving of financing, the Town’s budget for the first round of grants is $17,500 with $2,500 left for the second round in September.
In discussion with representatives from the various groups in attendance, staff agreed to allocate $750 to the Tetrahedron Park Outdoor Club for road maintenance on Grey Creek Road, $1,000 to the Coast Cultural Alliance for their arts calendar and Art Crawl, and they increased funding for the Deer Crossing Art Farm’s Synchronicity Festival from $500 to $1,000.
Arwen MacDonald, programming and festival director for the Synchronicity Arts Festival, addressed the committee, saying that the originally allocated $500 was disappointing.
“One of the things we’re really trying to do is turn it into a destination festival, meaning bringing more people [from] off-Coast so that we can showcase the Sunshine Coast for everything that it has going,” MacDonald said. “It’s maybe not a news flash that we’re in need of some economic stimulation. We’re trying to help provide that with tourism and off-Coast marketing.”
Following his presentation, the festival was granted an additional $500.
Gibsons Elementary School requested $5,000 for their playground project, but the request was not added to the grant budget at this time.
“You need to know the school district has allocated some funds out of the capitol money, just under $10,000 to the playground,” said principal Deborah Luporini. “The way the Ministry of Education operates, they have to ensure that the building and the grounds and all the aspects of the project must be completed before they could dedicate any money to the playground.”
Gibsons Elementary is currently in the process of moving the old playground to the new location in the final phase of the new school construction. Luporini said that while some of the equipment made the move intact, other pieces did not.
“It’s one of those situations where we have to wait until right to the very end, but we need a playground now. That’s the challenge for us,” she concluded.
The 2015 grants of assistance will go to council for final approval on April 21.
