By Greg Higgins

Federal grant could help the city save in renovation costs

Jun 29, 2016 | 11:00 AM

The city will have to budget a million dollar project through taxes if they can’t get a federal grant.

North Battleford has applied for the Canada 150 grant to cover half of the cost to renovate two arenas.

“If we don’t get it, then it’s something we will have to budget for over the next few years,” Bill Samborski, director of leisure services, said. “These are items that will need to get done regardless. This is an opportunity to get some funding towards the expense. If not we will need to get the money through taxation.”

According to Samborski, the Civic Centre and Don Ross arenas are in desperate need of renovations.

“The ballasts in the lighting fixtures of the Civic Centre are obsolete. We are going to have to retrofit them as they burn out next year. If we could replace them with an energy efficient LED system it would help save money and be more environmentally friendly,” Samborski said. “The ice plant at the Don Ross arena is the original ice plant which is a Freon system. That system is being phased out because it’s not a nice product for the environment. We’d like to get an enhanced system. The ice plant has passed its life expectancy and needs to be replaced.”

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The Canada 150 grant is matches up to $500,000 in celebration of the country turning 150 next year. Samborski applied for the grant last year and was rejected.

“What frustrates me is that we never got a reason why we were declined,” Samborski said. “I would have liked to know if it was a matter of priority or if we did something wrong in the application process. We were really happy to hear they were doing it again this year.”

The application also includes board replacement and control upgrades for both arenas. According to Samborski the whole renovation should come to a total of $1 million which would entitle the city to the maximum grant of $500,000.

Samborski doesn’t expect to get an answer for a couple of months.

Greg Higgins is battlefordsNOW’s city municipal affairs and health reporter. He can be reached at ghiggins@jpbg.ca or tweet him @realgreghiggins. Concerns regarding this story can be addressed to News Director Geoff Smith at 306-446-6397.