The provincial government has awarded $150,000 for improvements to the Clyde and Legal curling rinks.
As recipients of Alberta Culture and Tourism’s Community Facility Enhancement Program (CFEP) matching grant, the Clyde and District Ag Society received $48,600 and the Legal Curling Club received $101,000.
“This essentially is a great thing recognizing the efforts they put into the community,” said MLA for Barrhead-Morinville-Westlock Glenn van Dijken, who handed out the cheques Nov. 14
Clyde
The ag society, which owns the curling complex, accepted the grant on behalf of the Clyde Curling Club and will use the money to repair the roof, replace flooring, and purchase two new stoves. Work on the floors will take place over the winter and roof repairs will start in the spring.
“We rent our building quite often for weddings over the summer,” said director Darcy Rau. “We’re booked for family reunions and weddings and the roof leaks, so we want to put a cover on top to stop that, and then the existing flooring is stained and very old so we want to replace that.”
The group was able to raise their matched portion through the Ag 500 and Summer Solstice fundraisers, two crib tournaments and a Christmas craft sale.
“We have fundraisers throughout the year towards our projects,” said Shonda Sawchyn, Ag Society secretary-treasurer.
The curling rink was built in 1990, but the two groups have been working together since 1982 when the ag society formed.
Legal
The Legal Curling Club received a heftier chunk of change to replace the roof on their 36-year-old curling rink.
President Kevin Montpetit said the leaky roof has steadily gotten worse.
“We’ve been patching it and making it work,” he said. “So many places have been patched now and due to the age, the people repairing it were recommending that we really needed to replace it.”
Montpetit said they were hoping to repair it this summer but didn’t hear they were approved until the end of September.
“When spring comes around, we’ll start looking at replacing it some time in April or May.”
The club has been around since 1952 and moved into its current building —which is leased from the Town of Legal — in 1980.
The club has about 100 regular curlers in the men’s, women’s, junior’s and senior’s leagues, as well as six bonspiels over the year. The rink is also rented out to schools during the day.
“The building is going four nights a week every week,” he said.
The bonspiels, memberships and town contributions helped fund the club’s portion of the grant.
