By David F. Rooney
Hundreds of people from 33 different organizations spent their evening listening to verbal bids for a dipper full of cash from the Columbia Basin Trust’s Affected Areas and Community Initiatives Program pot.
This year the groups asked for $531,806 for their projects, which ranged from a riding tractor to help mow the landing field for the Revelstoke Remote Control Club’s miniature aircraft to $35,000 to help the Revelstoke Cycling Association improve mountain bike infrastructure in the Revelstoke area. The CBT has made $351,538 available.
The oldest program offered by the CBT, the Affected Areas and Community Initiatives Program helps build and strengthen our region’s communities.
Please click here to see a list of this year’s projects and the groups sponsoring them.
The meeting proceeded smoothly and the 33 people who presented the groups’ 39 project proposals finished in 2 hours and 20 minutes — probably a record for this kind of meeting.
In order to gain some of that money groups must meet certain criteria. Please click here to see the Revelstoke criteria
In many, perhaps even all, other communities in the Basin city and town councils decide who gets what without asking for public input. Here in Revelstoke, the members of the applicant groups get to vote on the 10 projects they think are most deserving. While there are several criteria the men and women of the evaluation team who judge the applications assign a maximum of 15 per cent of the total points to community support. So participation in these annual meetings and voting really do matter.
