Creston town council voted to disburse about $62,000 to 28 community groups at Tuesday’s regular meeting, then got chastised by Regional District of Central Kootenay board chair John Kettle for not turning over the decision-making to the public.
“I was part one of the drafters of the program and I can tell you the intent was to let the public decide how the community initiatives grants are distributed,” Kettle told council members during question period following the meeting.
Council had already debated and agreed on how much each group would receive.
“One municipality has chosen to return the money rather than follow the rules and another is using it to reduce their taxpayers’ load, which is an absolute no-no,” he said. “The CBT (Columbia Basin Trust) hasn’t enforced the rules but I think they could start, or the entire program could be put in jeopardy.”
Kettle said in his Area B, he appoints representatives from through the area he represents, and does not have a personal vote on how to distribute the funds.”
Columbia Basin Trust allocates funds to each regional district in its area and the regional districts, in turn, create their own formulas to distribute the funds through each area and municipality.
To date, the Town of Creston has invited applications, then followed up with a public meeting in which applicants are invited to attend and answer questions about their funding requests from town council.
The amounts allotted at Tuesday’s meeting are recommendations, and must first be approved by the RDCK board before the grants are handed out to applicants.
Recommendations are as follows:
First Creston Scouts, $2,000
Addiction Recovery Centre, $3,000
Borderline Barrel Racing, $750
Central Kootenay Invasive Plant Committee, $500
Spay Neuter Animal Program, $4,000
Auditorium Society, $1,100
Creston Community Band, $1,250
Creston Judo Club, $4,500
PAWS, $3,000
Creston Wave Swim Team, $1,500
Community Resource Centre, $5,000
Creston and District Society for Community Living, $856
Blossom Festival, $2,500
Chamber of Commerce, $1,500
Creston Community Radio Society, $675
Fall Fair, $1,000
Horse Association, $200
Junior Hockey, $2,000
Figure Skating Club, $5,800
Food Action Coalition, $2,150
Community Greenhouse, $1,800
Airport Society, $1,200
Rowing Society, $1,400
Seniors Association, $3,500
Footlighters, $750
Kootenai Community Centre, $3,793
Legion, $2,000
Sasquatch Arts and Music Society, $1,300