City of Powell River Council has approved two grant applications for upgrades to Powell River Recreation Complex.
At the November 5 city council meeting, councillors voted unanimously in favour to submit an application for the recreation complex ice plant heat recovery project, and that it commits its share of $483,000 for the project. Councillors also voted unanimously in favour of grant funding for the recreation complex facility improvements project, and that council commits to its share of $662,400 of the project, as well as cost overruns.
Funds the city is allocating to the projects came from Powell River Community Forest, and earlier in the meeting, council approved the monetary contribution when councillors voted for nearly $1.7 million to be withdrawn from the community forest reserve fund and distributed to 12 projects in total.
Councillor CaroleAnn Leishman said the sustainability planner and climate mitigation and adaptation committee were in favour of the motions.
Speaking to the first motion, Leishman said it was one of the actions council was excited to take on to reduce carbon emissions. She said it was a great project.
Speaking to the second motion, Leishman said the work was needed at the recreation complex to keep it viable moving into the future.
“I’m excited to support this grant application,” said Leishman.
Councillor Jim Palm said he was keeping his fingers crossed that the grant applications would be approved because it’s a giant step forward for that facility.
“It replaces two of the existing roofs and also does seismic upgrading on one of the main wall structures on the building,” said Palm.
At the November 3 committee of the whole meeting, chief administrative officer Russell Brewer said both items had a proviso on them saying the grant applications were pending the adoption of community forest board recommendations.
“Given that we are moving forward, two of those recommendations were related to grant applications for the recreation complex,” said Brewer. “What staff would like to do to give us the best chance to be successful with those grant applications is match the wording pretty much exactly to what the funders are looking for, for both of those.”
In a report to council, Brewer outlined that the total estimated project costs for the recreation complex ice plant heat recovery project is $1,573,603, of which the application to the CleanBC Communities Fund is seeking $1,153,923, which is 73.33 per cent funding. He stated that the total estimated project costs for the facility improvements project is $6,624,000, of which the application is seeking 90 per cent funding, amounting to $5,961,600 from the Rural and Northern Communities Fund.
