(Lethbridge News Now)

By Karsen Marczuk

Coaldale Town Council selects 2021 Community Grant recipients

May 28, 2021 | 3:08 PM

COALDALE, AB- The Town of Coaldale Community Grant fund is providing $35,000 to local user groups to fund community-oriented projects.

The program is designed to help finance projects, programs, or events that contribute to the overall well-being of our community.

The program is funded entirely by Coaldale’s photo radar program and has contributed a collective $146,353 to community-focused projects to date.

“No one likes getting photo radar tickets, but the good news here is that Coaldale has taken an innovative approach to how it uses these funds by giving them back to community groups instead of using them to fund our own operations,” says Russ Tanner, Director of Recreation and Community Services for the Town. “Our community groups use these funds to support great initiatives for our residents, and the best part is that typically only 15 per cent of our tickets come from Coaldale residents which means traffic from outside of Town is actually funding local Coaldale programming.”

With the COVID-19 pandemic, traffic volumes were reported to be lower than in normal years, resulting in fewer tickets being issued.

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“Traffic volumes were lower for much of 2020,” says Cam Mills, Manager of Economic Development for the Town. “However, we’re seeing our 2021 numbers so far this year almost doubling the same period last year, so that’s good news from an economic standpoint that also translates into higher revenues for this program.”

There was $35,000 of funding was available for eligible projects compared to $47,570 last year.

This year, 12 eligible applications were received and reviewed by the Community Grant Evaluation Committee with the requested funding amount totaling $78,666.

“This was an exceptionally challenging year to select the successful applicants; we had a shortage of funding and an excess of applicants that may not have been able to find funding elsewhere due to COVID-19-related cutbacks,” explained Mayor Kim Craig. “All of the eligible applications requested projects that bring tremendous value to the community; ultimately we selected applicants that provided a variety of value-added programs and projects for Coaldale.”

Town Council selected six applicants to receive the subsequent amount of funding:

• 3rd Coaldale Scouts: $4,450
• Coaldale & District Fire Fighter Association: $7,977
• Coaldale Granite Club: $6,000
• AHS Coaldale Healthy Communities Initiative: $4,000
• Coaldale Minor Hockey Association & Kate Andrews High School: $10,000
• Coaldale Senior’s Advisory Committee: $2,573

“Council has directed administration to work with the applicants who did not receive funding to help them look for other options,” added Mayor Craig. “There are many other resources available that they may be able to take advantage of and the Town is more than happy to provide time and resources and assist them in bringing their projects to life.”

As for photo radar, the Town targets high-risk areas for locations that include enforcement in unsafe or ineffective areas, areas with a history of collisions, streets with a history of speeding problems, high pedestrian areas, schools, playgrounds, and construction zones.