MELFORT — The City of Melfort is receiving a Lieutenant Governor of Saskatchewan’s Heritage Award for the work that went into the Historic Post Office.
“We’re pretty excited to be selected as a recipient for that award,” said Brent Lutz, Melfort’s director of development, planning and community relations.
The award is in recognition of the recent project on the Historic Post Office, with the replacement of the windows with historic replicas, and all the work that has been done on the rehabilitation on the Historic Post Office over the last seven years.
Over $200,000 was raised to go into the replacement of the windows. The funds came initially from a provincial grant from the Heritage Foundation, but to except the grant the city needed to raise an equal amount of money to put into it.
“In the process of doing so we found a major donor who was willing to match the Heritage Foundation grant and that was Avatex Devcorp and they provided the entire matching grant for the amount of the Sask Heritage Foundation,” Lutz said. “A challenge that they would provide dollar for dollar for any money we could raise locally from other businesses and individuals by way of donation.”
It was in their fundraising intuitive that they were successful in fundraising for a federal legacy grant. This grant also required matching funds but allowed the city to use the provincial grant as well as corporate sponsorships.
“By stacking the provincial and federal grants and doubling the donation of the corporate donor through individual donations and business donations in the community, we were able to raise sufficient funds to meet the whole budget that exceeded $200,000 for the work.”
Lutz said the replica windows are both energy efficient and are maintenance free on the exterior of the building.
The award will be presented by the Lieutenant Governor at Government House in October.
In addition to the city receiving the award, the city nominated a number of co-recipients that were involved with the Historic Post Office project over the last seven years. These names included Avatex Devcorp; the architectural firm AODBT, who provided the consulting services and supervision; the contracting firm Tremblay Construction, who managed the project and installed the windows; Marvin, the manufacturer who supplied the replica windows; and the volunteer committee who worked on the project.
