A Sturgeon County community group got some good news at last week's council meeting: a $400,000 grant for a new community hall under construction in Calahoo.
Council awarded the grant to the West Sturgeon Ag Society at the Oct. 27 meeting, with the money coming from the Calahoo Villeneuve Community Grants, a fund paid into by sand and gravel operators in the area.
The purpose of the fund, in accordance with county bylaw, is to finance capital projects and community improvements that will provide benefits to residents most affected by sand and gravel operations.
Dale Soetaert, the chair of the ag society's hall committee, said while the $1.8- million project is well underway and is projected to be completed in the spring, the grant money will mean the ag society will take on significantly less debt to get the job done.
“This process began seven years ago, and we've been fundraising since that time,” he said. “This money will greatly reduce the amount of money we will have to borrow to finish this building.”
The project is much needed in the community, he added, because while there are two small meeting facilities in the area now, neither has a kitchen, neither is wheelchair accessible, and ultimately residents can't make use of them for major events like weddings.
“We've got a growing community, and we want to be able to hold functions that can incorporate a meal,” Soetaert said. “A lot of community people are having to have their major family and important events in their lives somewhere else.”
He added the hall will be a significant benefit to the many area residents who have been affected by sand and gravel operations in one way or another.
Council heard there are no other capital projects in the area that have applied for grant funding, but there will still be nearly $200,000 for other projects, and that figure will increase as companies continue to pay into the fund.
Coun. Wayne Bokenfohr, who chairs the county's sand and gravel extraction committee, told council he would hope to see full support for this motion, given the strong level of volunteerism in the Calahoo area that has made the hall project possible.
“As you hear it's harder and harder to find volunteers in any organization, and here you have the next generation of community volunteers,” he said. “I think this is a prime example of putting those (grant) dollars to good use.”
Some councillors expressed concern that more than two thirds of the $589,000 in grant money would go toward one project, especially with other facilities in the region needing work such as the Pinewood Hall, but Bokenfohr emphasized the level of volunteer commitment in the two communities is different, which justified the move, and said regardless there is a great deal of funding left for other projects in the future.
“There's still going to be $189,000 left in the reserve, and there seems to be around $35,000 or $40,000 a year the fund will continue to grow, to look at other projects in the area,” he said. “It won't deplete the fund.”
Council approved the funding unanimously.
