(rdnewsNOW file photo)

By Ian Gustafson

$300,000

Red Deer County council approves grant funding for community organizations

Jun 18, 2025 | 1:03 PM

Red Deer County council has unanimously approved a motion to award 19 community groups $300,000 from the 2025 Rural Community Facility Capital Assistance Grant program.

The motion was brought forward from councillor Brett Ramsay who said at their regular meeting on Tuesday, these are some of the best dollars they spend every year.

“We get the money into the hands of the volunteers to improve our community facilities and make our communities viable,” he said.

The grant was created 19 years ago for non-profit community organizations, agricultural societies or associations, and hall boards to apply for funding support for capital projects involving maintenance, repair, or enhancement of facilities located in Red Deer County.

The following 19 organizations were selected:

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• Antler Hill (new signage – advertising $11,067.14)
• Balmoral Community Hall (new water well & decommission of old well $22,906.28)
• Central Community Hall (furnace replacement $7,560)
• Cumberland Community Club (replacement of siding with stucco $37,787.59)
• Danish Canadian National Museum (pre-construction/prep for capital expansion $11,126.57)
• Dickson Store Museum (repair/repaint siding garage/main building $14,331.43)
• Elnora & District Ag Society (hardwood floor refinishing $6,106.61)
• Nisbet Community Hall (replacement of exterior siding $3,560.67)
• Poplar Ridge Community Centre (bathroom renovations ($20,725)
• Raven Community Centre (Church) (exterior renovations $36,161.63)
• Ridgewood Community Hall (bathroom renovations $10,517.85)
• SGSIS – Butter Maker House (basement renovations (Reimbursement) $787.03)
• SGSIS – Fensala Hall (hardwood floor restoration $3,708)
• SGSIS – Creamery (eavestrough $364.50)
• Springbrook Community Association (seacan – purchase & site development $9,321.90)
• SV & District Ag Society (Dickson Arena (Diamond Jubilee) hot water on demand system $7,154.66)
• Spruce View Community Hall (sewer replacement $72,093)
• Valley Centre Community Hall (furnace replacement $8,800)
• Willowdale Community Association (new water well & reclamation $15,920.13)

This year, applicants were asked to apply for only one project as the grant has been consistently over subscribed. This year saw an increase in the amount of groups who applied for assistance. The deadline for next year will be for February 2026.

Mayor Jim Wood said community halls are the hearts of communities.

“These are the types of facilities that you see the bridal shower to the wedding, we see a lot of funerals too sadly, and we see absolutely every fun dance and everything else the community can put on,” Wood said. “There is so much happening at our community facilities and I want to thank administration, you have a tough job trying to figure all this out. I’ve never seen this when it wasn’t over subscribed but what I have seen is the good that comes from this every single year.”

A total of 20 applications were received with one ineligible for a total of $413,679 in eligible projects. The amount of funding support requested towards the projects reached a total of $342,814.

The applications were assessed using a specific scoring criteria including safety, importance to the operation, financial contributions from the group, operational period and availability, community benefit of the project, and previous grant funding received.

Since the grants inception in 2007 the county has awarded over $4.6 million in capital funding to rural community facilities.