Rocky View County’s (RVC) Recreation Governance Committee approved a $90,000 funding request that will allow four different Langdon community groups and organizations to fund their operations for another year.
At the February 7 committee meeting, County administration presented funding requests totalling $91,930 that would come out of the Langdon Special Tax Grant, which supports Langdon focused non-profit organizations through funding for cultural and recreational programs.
The money will go towards the maintenance of the ball diamonds at Langdon’s Iron Horse Field and Langdon Park–which will now be maintained by RVC funded workers on a regular basis up to the amount of $40,000.
The Langdon Community Association (LCA) also requested $30,250 for their operational budget. In their application, the LCA stated that the money would go towards covering the cost of utilities for the Langdon Field House, snow removal, and monthly playground inspections.
The Langdon Theatre Association applied for $15,000 to cover the cost of theatre rental fees as well as annual field trip expenses.
Lastly, the Synergy Youth and Community Development Society submitted an operational funding request of $6,680 to support program equipment purchases.
Administration recommended that the committee approve the grants for each of the organizations.
Division 7 Coun. Al Schule, who represents Langdon on council, admitted that he had a problem with paying for these items out of Langdon’s Special Tax Grant when they are clearly of regional benefit.
“Why make Langdon pay for all of this?” Schule asked his fellow committee members.
Division 4 Coun. Samanntha Wright disagreed with Schule’s reasoning. Wright countered that just because the facilities like the Langdon ball diamonds or the Theatre Association are used, or attended by, people from outside of Langdon does not mean that they shouldn’t also be funded by the community that houses them.
“You’d be hard pressed to find anything in Langdon that is only used by people in Langdon,” responded Wright. “How would we divvy up the tax if that was the criteria?”
In the end, Schule remained consistent in his displeasure with applying the entirety of the tax burden to the Langdon Special Tax Grant, but voted to support the approval of the grants nonetheless.
All of the grants were approved with a unanimous vote by committee members.
