Coaldale town council selects 2021 Community Grant recipients

The Town of Coaldale Community Grant fund is a program 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 $146,355 to community-focused projects.

“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,” said 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 around 15% of our tickets come from Coaldale residents which means traffic from outside of Town is actually funding local Coaldale programming.”

This year, $35,000 of funding was available for eligible projects, compared to last year’s $47,570. The reduction in available funds is likely correlated to fewer cars on the road due to work-at-home orders and public health restrictions.

“Traffic volumes were lower for much of 2020,” said 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.”

“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-related cutbacks,” said Coaldale 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.”

12 eligible applications were received and reviewed by the Community Grant Evaluation Committee with the requested funding amount totaling $78,666. Town Council has selected the following groups to receive the subsequent amount of funding:

• 3rd Coaldale Scouts - $4450

• Coaldale & District Fire Fighter Association - $7977

• Coaldale Granite Club - $6000

• AHS Coaldale Healthy Communities Initiative - $4000

• Coaldale Minor Hockey Association & KAHS - $10,000

• Coaldale Senior’s Advisory Committee - $2573 “Council has directed administration to work with the applicants who did not receive funding to help them look for other options,” said 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.”