The Chamber of Commerce was awarded $19,000 and the Electric Tramway Society got $7500. Those were the highest of 43 awards made to 47 applicants under the Columbia Basin Trust’s (CBT’s) community initiatives program at city council on Monday.
The chamber’s funds will be spent on the new visitor centre in the old CPR station, and the tramway society will be renovating their car barn.
Other awards over $5000 were:
- Oxygen Art Centre, $7000 for its exhibition and residency project
- Kootenay Literary Society, $6000 to help fund the Elephant Mountain Literary Festival
- The Nelson Rod and Gun Club, $5000 for a handicapped access ramp
- The Kootenay Climbing Association, $5000 for the Cube Climbing Centre flooring
The full list of the awards is attached below.
The CBT annually allocates money for community initiatives to the regional districts who in turn divide it up between municipalities and rural areas. This year, the RDCK allocated $126,477 to the City of Nelson. The applicants all pitched their projects to council on April 13.
The total amount requested by all applicants was $247,545.23—approximately double the amount available.
This year council introduced a new criterion for allocating the money. The funds must be approximately equally divided between the four pillars of sustainability—cultural, environmental, social, and economic—as outlined in the city’s Path to 2040 Sustainability Plan.
For the cultural sector grants, the city’s Cultural Development Committee (CDC) adjudicates the grants and passes their conclusions on to the council.
The council adjudicates the other applications with a process of voting and discussion.
Councillor Anna Purcell was enthusiastic about the process and the result.
“I found it wonderful,” she said, “really lovely to see all the different groups, and it was great to learn more about what they do, and see their earnestness and hopefulness, and what they do for our community. I found it totally a pleasure.”
She said there was a high degree of agreement among the councillors when evaluating the merits of the applications.
The grant awards are all subject to the approval of the Regional District of Central Kootenay, which will review them in the next month.