Community centre project gets $100,000

JACBA will hire administrator and start construction-planning phase

The Jordantown- AcaciavilleConway Betterment Association (JACBA) has received $100,000 in funding from the province’s Department of Communities, Culture and Heritage towards the cost of project management and design for the planned community centre.

Kerry Johnson, president of JACBA, said the funding was another step towards the goal of building the new centre.

“This is the blueprint or preconstruction stage of the project,” Johnson said, adding that it will be four years in August since the project idea was hatched. “Now we have these funds, we’re ready to hire an administrator who will oversee that construction phase, and get some programs in place so when the centre does open, we’re ready to go.”

The proposed conceptual design of the centre could include space for a pre-school, youth and adult learning, and cultural and recreation program, as well as retail space.

Johnson said the group is also working on its charitable status, so they can start a major fundraising campaign. The federal government will contribute one third, the province another third and the community will need to raise the rest.

Johnson said his father was instrumental in turning an abandoned segregated school into a community centre back in the 70s. It was closed in the mid-80s because the building was deemed unsafe.

“My father was in the military at the time and leadership is what Kerry Johnson was one of those who participated during the recent African Heritage Month launch in Digby. The president of the Jordantown-AcaciavilleConway Betterment Association says recent funding from the province was another step towards the goal of building a new community centre. he did, so he assembled a group of folks and brought the community together around creating that community centre,” Johnson said. “It was small, only a two-room schoolhouse, but that’s where we would gather.”

Asked if he’s walking in his father’s footsteps, Johnson laughed.

“I’ve never thought of it that way,” he said. “This project has always been a community effort, and it was sort of thrown at me and I didn’t want to drop the ball.”

While Johnson said the centre is being constructed in response to the human rights decision that specifically stated a community centre must be built for his community, he also said the association now has a mixed committee of 12 members from the broader region.

“There were certain credentials that we needed on the board… so we went out and asked certain people to get involved,” Johnson said. “So we now have this mixed group that has the experience to get the centre open and see that it runs.”

The centre, when it opens, will welcome all.

“That’s what we said from the beginning,” Johnson said. “This will be from the community and for the community.”

Clare-Digby MLA Gordon Wilson said he was pleased to announce the funding last week towards the design of a new community centre in Digby.

“This facility recognizes a longstanding need here in Digby and will benefit people in our area and visitors for many years to come,” Wilson said. “Projects like this help build strong communities, a key feature of our province’s Culture Action Plan.”

Johnson said they do not have a date for the major funding announcement from the federal and provincial governments, but he hopes it will be soon.

“Digby doesn’t have anything like this,” Johnson said, “and every community needs a place to gather.”