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Club Request Passed To City

Mar 8, 2018 | 7:00 PM

The City of Vernon will take the lead on a request by the North Valley Gymnastics Club for local government support.

The Greater Vernon Advisory Committee is giving the request for 225-thousand dollars conditional support.

Club spokesman Paul Williamson says that’s half of what they originally asked for.

“450-thousand is a big ask, and there is a lot of precedence out there, so I split it in half and asked for it as soon as possible. We will look for other funding sources though.”

The funding is for the club’s new building on 31st Street which they are hoping to move into by the end of May.

Williamson says they can address the issues brought up by GVAC.

“The first was ownership. We can register them on title if they want. The second was the public access. The club has been available and accessible to the public for 25 years.”

Vernon will consider the request, and see if it fits into the new master recreation plan, with input from Coldstream and Areas B and C.

Recreational funding requests and projects for Greater Vernon are now being handled by the City of Vernon.

It’s part of the new regional set up, with RDNO no longer having a recreation function.

Coldstream and Areas B and C will have input.

Greater Vernon Advisory Director Akbal Mund says groups can still make presentations to GVAC.

“I would say come to GVAC first, and then everybody knows about it, and it will obviously be referred to the City of Vernon. Then we’ll go through the master recreation plan and say ‘this is the plan for the future,”‘ Mund tells CJIB News.