By Stephen Dafoe
Morinville – Council approved $3,862 in Community Grant funding at the Sept. 11 meeting of Morinville Town Council. Applications were received from and approved for the Sturgeon Community Hospital Foundation’s Celebrating Life and Culture Gala 2012 and a Youth Art Club project. The former received $2,000, the latter $1,862.
The Sturgeon Community Hospital Foundation event takes place in Morinville during Alberta Arts Days and raises funds for the Sturgeon Hospital Foundation. The Youth Art Club request was for seed monies to start an art club for youth in Morinville independent of the existing adult art club.
The Art and Culture Gala has an attendance of 100 to 150 patrons; the art club is anticipated to have 10 to 16 members. Five are already registered and there is interest from four more.
Councillor Nicole Boutestein expressed concerns over spending $1,800 for eight or nine children and voted against the grant request. She was the only opposing vote.
A third request had been received from the Morinville and District Agricultural Society to fund their annual Boo-In-The-Barn event; however, the request was withdrawn after the group folded.
New policy added since the second quarter grants were issued is the requirement for grant applicants to attend the Council meeting where the grant is to be decided in order to answer Council questions. Additionally, an event report is now required within 60 days of the event. Both applicants attended the Sept. 11 meeting to answer those questions on why the money was needed and how the money would be spent.
The Community Grants Program has an annual budget of $27,500 of which almost $15,000 had been used in the first two quarters of 2012. Third quarter requests fell $1,600 short of the $5,500 allotted for the third quarter.
Deadline for fourth quarter Community Grant applications is Nov. 30.
At the same meeting, Morinville Town Council approved financial support for the Morinville and District Chamber of Commerce’s Annual Business Awards Gala and the Sturgeon Foundation’s 50th Anniversary event. Both events take place this fall.
