MOORFIELD – Mapleton is adding $20,000 to its Community Improvement Plan (CIP) pot this year.
On Oct. 13, council heard from economic development and marketing coordinator Aly Cripps that CIP applications had exceeded the township’s $20,000 allocation for 2020.
“We want to try and give as much help to businesses, especially with COVID this year,” Cripps said.
The $20,000 will be coming from the CIP’s 2017 reserve.
“The first two years (2017, 2018) that we budgeted amounts we did not use any of the funds since the CIP wasn’t actually approved by council yet,” Cripps said.
The 2018 reserve was added to 2019 CIP funding.
“It’s great to see this many applications,” said councillor Marlene Ottens. “It’s great to have all the money taken up and have this many more still wanting it. I think that’s fabulous.”
Councillor Dennis Craven asked whether council should consider budgeting more money to CIP grants next year.
However, because the uptake has been so strong in the first two years it was promoted Cripps said she doesn’t foresee surpassing the $20,000 next year.
“Our downtowns aren’t that large of areas, most of this goes to downtown businesses and we’ve seen quite a few of them do that,” Cripps said.
“I’m not saying it will never have to come back to council with that, but I think right now we’ve seen a lot of uptake without businesses that probably won’t come back for quite a few years.”
In the same vein, councillor Michael Martin asked whether $20,000 was enough to cover the applications for the remainder of the year.
Cripps confirmed that she believed $20,000 was enough for the two confirmed buildings with applications put forward and the two that had expressed intent.
Council was unanimous in approving the additional funding.
