The town will loan $25,000 to the Clifford Homecoming committee to be used as seed money for the celebration planned for Aug. 4-7, 2017.
“Their committee is up and running and incurring expenses,” treasurer Gordon Duff told council at their Aug. 7 meeting. “They have approached us to see if we would front some money.”
Pointing out, “it’s something we’ve done in the past for other similar events,” Duff said the committee needs cash fairly early in the process in order to, among other things, put down deposits for bands.
Mayor George Bridge explained that because the event is being held at the same time as national 150th anniversary celebrations across Canada, “when you’re going out to try to get bands and things like that have to put deposits down now.”
Duff said the committee has also incurred some expenses for setting up a website.
Bridge, who is part of the committee, said he is confident the group will raise more than $25,000 in sponsorships alone, but “right now they really haven’t got the sponsorships going. It’s two years out.
“I agree with giving them the $25,000, or lending it to them,” said councillor Ron Elliott. However, he added, “I would like to see how they’re planning on spending the money.”
Duff said he could ask the committee to provide a budget, “but I know they are a little anxious.”
Councillor Mary Lou Colwell asked if Elliott would prefer the funds be advanced to the committee in stages, in order to provide time to get a budget done before all the money is provided.
“What’s the concern though?” asked Bridge. “I can’t understand the concern. Like, we’ve done it for the Lions club…”
“And certainly the Lions Club showed exactly where the money was going to go,” replied Elliott. Adding, “I’m just saying, if were giving them $25,000…”
“We’re not giving it to them, we’re loaning it to them,” Bridge interjected.
“The problem I have is, I just hate spending money without knowing where my money’s going. If it was out of my pocket I wouldn’t do it,” said Elliott.
“I think they’ll have the budget pretty well set down either this month or next month, Ron. I can bring the budget back to you at the next (meeting) but I hate to delay it on them if they need some of this stuff now,” said Bridge.
At CAO Bill White’s suggestion, council passed a motion agreeing to provide the loan, but requiring that a budget be filed with the treasurer and the money be repaid by the end of 2017.
“That will give them time to do their books and everything,” said White.
