The Nelson Curling Club received some good news this week.
City council agreed to pitch in $30,000 towards ice plant repairs, thanks to a doubling in the City’s Community Works Fund, or Gas tax, this year, up to $1-million.
City staff were calling for only 20-thousands but councillor Cal Renwick felt a little more would go a long way.
“I would hate to see us have to lose a recreation enjoyed by so many that’s increasing in popularity,” he said. This funding should also help “put them over the hump” he added.
The curling club asking City Council for $30,000 in funding last month. They’ve also asked a number of regional district directors in the area and plan to apply to the Columbia Basin Trust for grant funding.
According to the City, until recently the club has fully funded its operations with no subsidy from local government other than the initial donation of land. There are other examples where tax payer dollars had to be used to help repair an ice plant, for example in Grand Forks.
Club President Gordon Weiss is very happy with the support, although there is one stipulation that a lease agreement be negotiated and that the building be opened up to other users.
“We felt back in ’94 when we gave the building to the City that it would become a multi use facility and nothing ever happened, but now it looks like it might happen. It’s a great building and it shouldn’t sit dormant for half the year. It should be used by everybody,” said Weiss.
The club has also been doing some fundraising and Weiss is very confident that the facility will be open for curling in October.