The long months of waiting are over. Decisions have been made. Letters have been mailed. Joy has been expressed, disappointment felt.
Applicants for $300,000-plus in surplus funds from the Summer Games learned last week of the fate of their requests.
Many were told “no”, some were told “yes.” While official announcement of the recipients has been delayed until cheques are cut, it seems the biggest smiles belong to sporting organizations and those with a connection to the 2013 Alberta 55 Plus Summer Games.
It is known, for instance, the Paddle River Golf Club and the Pembina Ringette Association were among those successful, while the Ripple Connection Support Centre, library and musical festival were not. The Paddle River club will receive $5,000 and the ringette association will get $2,500, probably to be spent on jerseys and goal equipment.
Barrhead general public may have to wait until Monday, April 28, before the Town officially releases names of Legacy Grant recipients, while the County’s list may take even longer to publish; May 6 is mentioned as a possible release date.
Both municipalities say they want to wait until cheques are ready to be handed out before announcing the recipients with an appropriate fanfare. Alberta 55 Plus Summer Games committee chair and Barrhead Mayor, Gerry St. Pierre, believed cheques would be cut in time for the April 28 Town meeting.
“We had originally hoped to make the presentations sooner, perhaps at the April 14 meeting, but that doesn’t seem possible now,” he said last week.
He added the hope was for everybody to find out the names of recipients at the same time.
The process for distributing Legacy Grants started last fall, with application forms going out into the community and being submitted to four of the municipalities involved in the Games: Town and County of Barrhead, Westlock and Westlock County. Those municipalities made recommendations to the Legacy Committee as to how they would like to see the money distributed, and the Legacy Committee in turn made final recommendations to the board for approval. It has been up to the four participant municipalities to decide when and how they will make their announcements.
The Town of Barrhead received 24 Legacy Grant applications. The County of Barrhead received 26 applications. Bids totalling more than $1 million were submitted.
County Reeve Bill Lee said he wanted the cheques to be presented at a County meeting. Realistically, the May 6 meeting was the most likely one, he said.
Lee said there were two main criteria for selecting groups for grants. Firstly, because the Games was a sporting occasion, it was felt funds should go as a priority towards sporting organizations, which could upgrade facilities or improve events. That would be a fitting Games legacy, he said. He added priority was also given to groups that helped put on the Games.
St. Pierre said the final decision on applications was made at a meeting March 19. The games board itself awarded some legacy grants directly to organizations involved with the games.
Games manager Marcie Mazurenko said Legacy Grant money available in all four municipalities totalled $341,991. The games board directed $31,500 to some organizations that either didn’t apply or weren’t recommended by the municipalities, leaving each of the municipalities about $77,000 to recommend for groups in their communities.
