Rossland was unsuccessful in its bid to get provincial funding to the tune of $4 million from the province as a part of the Community Recreation Program grant. The city had initially applied for the grant at the end of December in hopes that council could procure funds to build a year round swimming pool.
Coun. Kathy Moore was not surprised by the unsuccessful application.
“They talk about limited funds and awards being based on merits of the program and within the guidelines of the program and I think we didn’t do a great job on all three of those criteria,” Moore said, adding that she was happy to see that a number of communities that are NDP ridings in the area got funding.
“Castlegar got $400,000 for their water pump, Nelson got $400,000 for their skate park, Creston got $400,000 to expand their recreation trails and equipment, Kaslo got 188,000 for an arena curling complex, Salmo got $80,000 for their community centre,” she noted. “So, I think it’s really nice that there are communities in our local area that were successful.”
Moore said there was talk that the area doesn’t get many grants of this sort, but that this indicated that was not the case. “There are a bunch of communities that did very well in this program and I think we should congratulate our neighbours,” she said.
Mayor Greg Granstrom asked sarcastically whether they should send a letter to congratulate their success?
“No, but I think it’s important that we celebrate their success,” she said.
Earlier this year, Moore was one of the councillors who opposed sending the recreation proposal, which asked for $4 million to overhaul Rossland’s swimming pool into a year round rec centre. The proposal came up in council only days before the entry deadline. Moore suggested, at the time, that the grant be a more modest proposal, in the range of the $400,000 that other municipalities were asking for.
She had argued that since the funds were meant to go to regional facilities, odds were against Rossland getting provincial funding to create a facility that essentially already existed in Trail. She argued the funds could have been used instead to fund something like the skate park project.