The first application window of 2023 for the County of Stettler Community Investment Program has now closed and council was able to review the applicants during its June 14 meeting.
Nine applications with funding requests totalling $20,550 were received prior to the May 31 deadline.
Created as a way to help improve the process of council receiving and approving sponsorship requests from various groups within the county’s borders, the Community Investment Program allocates $15,000 per year split into two “windows,” one for the first part of the year, and one for the later half.
The first window closes May 31, and the second Dec. 31.
“There’s some pretty big asks in there for this small amount of money,” said Coun. James Nibourg.
Applicants included the friends of the Big Valley School Educational Society, asking $,5000, Stettler Variety Showcase, asking $1,000, the Stettler All-Star Team, asking for the full $7,500, the Big Valley Agricultural Society, asking $3,500, the Big Valley Bust Out Rodeo, asking $1,500, and some smaller asks.
Lorraine Hankins, the County of Stettler’s manager of Recreation and Insurance, noted that the friends of Big Valley School requested funding for upgrading playground equipment at Big Valley School.
Stettler Variety Showcase was requesting the funds to help them increase their exposure and let the community know who they are and what they are about.
The Big Valley Agricultural Society request was for funding towards the July 22 Big Valley Street Festival.
A larger request was the Stettler All-Star Team, which is the Wm. E. Hay archery team travelling to South Africa in the coming weeks.
“The large amounts, I don’t mind giving them some,” said Coun. Les Stulberg.
“They would probably qualify for recreation special funding.”
Ultimately, seven of the nine requests were partially funded through the Community Investment program.
Friends of Big Valley School, the Big Valley Agricultural Society, and the Big Valley Bust Out Rodeo each received funding of $1,500. Stettler Variety Showcase and the Stettler All-Star Team each received funding of $1,000. To finish off the $7,500 available in this window, the Stettler Pheasant Festival, celebrating its tenth year, and Stettler Culture Days each received $500.
The Crafty Crew 4-H Multi Club, which had requested $50 from the Community Investment Program, ended up receiving the funding as a donation from Nibourg.
Recreation Special Project Funding
According to County of Stettler Recreation manager Lorraine Hankins, despite the Recreation Special Project Funding request window being open year-round a significant number of the requests come in on the day of the yearly Oct. 31 deadline.
As the funding requests need to be checked for completeness before they are provided to the County of Stettler Rec. Board for final decisions in early November, Hankins has requested that the deadline for special project funding be moved ahead two weeks, to Oct. 15 of any given year.
According to Hankins the result will be a “better evaluation process by the rec. board.”
Coun. Justin Stevens agreed that giving Hankins more time to go through the applications was a reasonable request and motioned to approve the request, which was carried.
