The work may already be done, but that doesn’t make the grant money any less sweet, says Athabasca & District Minor Hockey Association (ADMHA) president Darcy Tangedal.
ADMHA received $19,816 in grant funding from the federal government through the Community Infrastructure Improvement Fund to help the association with repairs it did to the Athabasca Regional Multiplex throughout the summer and fall of 2013.
The work completed includes changes to the upstairs lounge windows and expansion inside dressing rooms one and three at the multiplex.
“Originally, (the windows) were up so high and they had the frames the wrong way, so you couldn’t really lean out and see what was going on,” said Tangedal of the lounge windows.
Part of the money was used to lower the windows and reverse the frames to allow for better viewing from the lounge.
A wall in the dressing rooms was also knocked out, and more hockey matting was laid on the floors. Tangedal said the room expansion has many benefits for the teams that use them, especially the older teams or teams with boys and girls.
“Especially for the midget and the men’s teams, it’s a big advantage for them to have a little more space,” he said.
The federal funding, announced on May 10, covered half the cost of the project. ADMHA paid the remainder. The total cost was $36,000–$38,000.
“It’s actually huge for the community,” Tangedal said. “For minor hockey, it’s an awesome grant, and it’s one of those things where you keep fixing up your local arena and make it better and more useful for everybody. It’s a win-win-win for sure.”
Other local recipients of Community Infrastructure Improvement funding included the Wandering River Seniors’ Drop-in Centre, which got $3,616 towards replacing the building’s furnace.
