TORQUAY - The Village of Torquay has recently received a pair of much-needed grants that Mayor Michael Strachan expects will benefit the community.
The first was for the Torquay Community Centre through the COVID-19 Resilience Stream of the Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program. The federal government supplied $83,860, the provincial government $69,876 and the village $55,914, to fix leaks in the roof and to upgrade the boiler system and install new flooring.
“In talking to our community club that runs our rink and our community centre, just because it was an old school that we had turned into our community centre, it needed some upgrades for sure, and finding the funds for that, usually it comes from fundraisers and auctions and different things like that to fund them,” said Strachan.
In consultation with the RM, the two levels of government decided to pitch in some funds to attract some further grants.
“Partnerships a new word for those communities that are looking at it, and we’re pretty excited about it,” said Strachan. “Hopefully when it’s all done, people will come out and see it.”
The community centre is a facility that people might not know about, but it hosts pickleball and karate, and the library is located there.
Right now they’re in the engineering stage for the project.
The village also received support for upgrades to its water treatment plant. The project is worth nearly $2 million, with the federal, provincial and municipal governments again contributing funds. Support came through one of the federal-provincial green initiatives.
“That funding is going to upgrade our water treatment plant, bring it into compliance for the future and help maybe bring some new residents come to town with a new water source. It’s actually going to increase our storage for water on hand, and even the quality of our water is going to improve.”
It’s a grant the village has been working on for a while, and they consider themselves fortunate the other levels of government viewed the facility as worthwhile.
Both grants were needed. The infrastructure in these facilities is aging, and communities the size of Torquay have finite revenue streams.
“Our budget for our community is $180,000 a year, so if you do the math on that, it takes a long time to afford that $2 million bill,” said Strachan. “So, having partners with the federal government and the provincial government, it covers some of those costs.”
The village has received the proposed drawings, and then it will be going out for tenders.
“We’re hoping to have some of the building up and ready to go this fall, so we can continue working this winter.”
Strachan hopes it can be up and running this year.
