The votes are in and the decision has been made.
At Monday night’s regular council meeting, council voted to accept the Aquaplex retrofit project as what the town will apply for as the Canada’s 150 birthday grant application.
Deputy Mayor Jay Garbutt said residents have to remember that this is just an application, there is no guarantee we will get the money.
“That is the truth for every application that we make for funding. In this case, I can’t speak for the amount of capital that was made available by the federal government to in their way celebrate Canada’s 150 birthday, but what I can tell you is, I know that every other community will also be on the hunt for those same dollars. We went forward with what we think will wind up being a very successful application candidate, as to whether or not that application is successful is of course completely beyond our control. You don’t get what you don’t ask for so I am pleased that we are moving forward with the application,” he told the Mail.
“We are, whether the application is successful or not, still going to do some retro fitting to the Aquaplex within the next 12 to 18 months to at a minimum bring in the zero entry that everyone has hoped for, for some time now to make it more accessible to younger swimmers,” Garbutt explained.
“If we are successful in the grant application, now that will give us even more capital to expand to sort of a leisure park type atmosphere along with the actual infrastructure that we are required to do.”
“All together we are really hopeful. The application goes out in just a couple of days but at the same time we want to make sure the community knows every one of the eight or nine projects that administration put forward as the potentials to be considered that then council brought down to the three choices that were (in return) presented to the public are still on the radar,” Garbutt said.
“They are still on the capital plan, we just need to re-focus on what is going to happen this year, next year and the year after… Our trail system and many of the other projects that were brought up for consideration for this funding will definitely remain on the front burner,” he said.