Feds pledge funds to improve Plymouth Community Centre
The Plymouth Community and Recreation Association has been able to make further strides in improving the area’s community centre thanks to federal government funding.
Central Nova MP Sean Fraser announced an investment of $33,587 through the Canada Community Revitalization Fund (CCRF) for the Plymouth Community and Recreation Association recently.
“During the pandemic when we have been chatting with a lot of communitybased organizations we’ve been hearing how difficult a time they have been having raising money,” says Fraser.
The CCRF was created to not only provide financial assistance but also to be an easier application process for community centres.
“It makes you feel good when you see a federal government have a presence in small communities,” says Fraser. The Plymouth Community and Recreation Association received the funding late last year and already has been able to install a roof overhang with safety lights for the exterior ramp.
The funding will also allow the association to replace the main entrance doors of the community centre with wider, electric-operated doors, and improve drainage at entrance areas when the weather becomes warmer.
“It is now becoming a decision not to become accessible and that is a decision to exclude people,” says Municipality of Pictou County District 11 Coun. Andy Thompson.
Reflecting on the building’s history, Thompson says the building went from being dormant and liable to a community asset.
The building’s usage has ebbed and flowed over time, but by the late 2000s it had become boarded up and unused. The community, alongside Thompson, started to restore it and over the past 12 years the community centre volunteer board has completed in excess of $400,000 in capital improvements to the building.
This included adding two fully accessible bathrooms, installing new siding, painting and repairing the roof.
Also, installing a 72-panel solar photovoltaic system has made the building energy self-sufficient, no longer having to rely on oil.
It also provides a revenue stream as they sell some of the electricity generated to Nova Scotia Power.
In 2019 the centre became the first operational system in Nova Scotia under the Department of Energy’s Solar Electricity for Community Buildings pilot program.
Moving forward, some of the projects the association has in mind includes installing energy-efficient windows, paving the centre’s driveway and creating accessible and solid entries to the exterior ramp and stairs.