Splitting the council votes in half, Comox council defeated a motion to fund a $8,000 grant to the Comox Recreation Commission, suggesting a grant of $4,000 instead at Wednesday's committee of the whole meeting.
Earlier this month, Pat Lewis, chair of the commission approached council with a grant request of $8,000 in order to leverage the money with gaming grants for a total of $30,000 to be used for youth programs this summer.
Council then brought forth the suggestion of donating older recreation equipment to the commission to sell, which they could in turn keep the profits.
Last week, Richard Kanigan, the Town's chief administrative officer, said when the Rec Commission dissolved into an advisory body to the Town, they had to dispose of their assets.
"At that time, they disposed of that, declared no value of anything that had any value. The structure of the committee recommendation from last week was that they would potentially see revenues come from something that had zero value. So those monies would have to be turned over to another gaming-eligible organization or turned back to the gaming branch," he noted.
At Wednesday's meeting, Coun. Russ Arnott suggested a motion that council grant $4,000 to the commission, and allow the organization to fundraise the remaining amount.
"I think this is a really good program that they have, but these always look better when you do some of the legwork yourselves, so I make a motion to give them $4,000 and encourage them to track down the other $4,000," he said.
Coun. Tom Grant questioned how the additional funds could be raised with minimal members.
"I appreciate what Coun. Arnott is trying to do but I just want to point out that the Rec Commission isn't some huge body with 1,000 volunteers; there's three or four people on it, and where's their ability to raise $4,000?" he asked. " ... If we follow through on your recommendation, this whole thing is going to fall off the end of the table, and they're just going to give up."
Coun. Hugh MacKinnon explained that prior to his work as councillor, he saw firsthand the impacts of youth programming, particularly for at-youth risk.
"Before I was a councillor, I was one of the groups who applied for a grant for dragonboating for students. Our understanding was that there was gaming funds that were open to be used," he said.
"I think the recreation commission has good intentions to pursue activities for youth. As far as each group that receives a grant having to fundraise, I understand and appreciate where you're coming from, but again I think the nature of our group is that it includes at-risk students that don't have a lot of volunteerism in their families and may not be able to do that," MacKinnon added.
Coun. Marcia Turner inquired about the implications of offering free programs for some individuals while Coun. Patti Fletcher noted her uncertainly about more funding towards recreation.
"I guess my hesitancy is what doors does this open? It's obviously a worthy cause, but the other side of me goes, recreation sure has got a lot in the past year, a wonderful new building, and we've asked other departments to cut some staffing here and there," she said.
"We're supposed to be here taking care of road, sewer and recreation," replied Grant. "I think the programs directed towards youth .... especially at-risk youth, God almighty, are we going to spend more money on police every year when something like this you never know how much money we're going to save.
"I know it's a small amount of money, but the way the rec commission is going to leverage it and if we can save two at-risk youths, then we've got our money back one hundredfold," Grant added.
Arnott clarified his position on helping youth in the community, noting the near-competition of the addition to the Comox Community Centre.
"We just put in a $3-million extension off of that building that's going to contribute to the youth and have programs within itself. I don't think we're letting anyone hang out to dry; we're trying to accommodate everybody. As you said one time, we can't please everybody. A little bit here can help."
The motion to grant the commission $8,000 was defeated on a tie as Couns. Grant, MacKinnon and Mayor Paul Ives voted to fund the organization at that level. Coun. Ken Grant was not present at the meeting.
The recommendation of a $4,000 grant will be brought forward to council next week following further information from staff.
photos@comoxvalleyrecord.com
