Mayor Neil Driscoll was not happy to learn the municipality’s application for Ontario Trillium Foundation funding for a skate park in Drayton has been turned down.
Driscoll reported at the Dec. 8 council meeting that he was advised in a recent telephone conversation that Mapleton’s application was unsuccessful.
“I did get a call back from the Trillium organization, if you can call them that,” said Driscoll. He added a Trillium official advised him “the threshold for your area has been already allocated.”
Essentially, said Driscoll, “they spent the money before our application was looked at.” He added he was also told that other applicants “were more needy than we were.”
The Trillium official told Driscoll the township should take a look at its “dollar metrics” and costs per square foot and re-apply for a future round of funding.
Driscoll said the official “couldn’t tell me” what grant threshold area Mapleton Township is in.
Driscoll also said he asked the official, “how does one get on that committee?” and suggested to council, “Maybe it’s time to get someone from Mapleton on that committee.”
He said the official declined to tell him “how many rural people are on this committee” or to provide an application form.
The OTF website indicates local funding applications are assessed by the foundation’s Waterloo-Wellington-Dufferin Grant Review Team, whose members’ names and brief biographies can be found on the website of the Ontario Public Appointments Secretariat.
Driscoll stated, “It’s just very frustrating that they can say we only have so many dollars for your area … to me she’s saying, ‘Yeah, maybe you think your project is important but we only have so many dollars and we want to get rid of them as quickly as possible.’”
The topic arose after councillor Marlene Ottens asked if the skate park project should be added to a list of projects under consideration for Mapleton’s 50/50 funding program, through which the municipality shares costs of community improvement projects with local service groups or other organizations.
CAO Brad McRoberts noted that since the Trillium application for skate park funding was unsuccessful, “we’re missing that one-third of the funding, approximately $33,000.”
However, McRoberts said accessing the 50/50 program may not be the next move the township should make.
“I believe there’s a whole raft of discussions that we need to have … it might be a bit premature at this point to suggest we take additional 50/50 funding and contribute to it,” he said.
Council has approved the idea of a skate park at a location in Drayton’s Kinsmen Park, utilizing and combination of community fundraising, local business sponsorship, municipal dollars and grant funding.
The cost of the facility has been estimated at about $100,000.
