Maple Ridge council has decided who will get the $61,800 in grants it dishes out yearly after a report by staff that tries to share the limited funds.
Thanks to earlier commitments, the sum has already been chopped by $5,000, which goes to the Iron Horse Youth Safe House, and another $3,700 to offset property taxes for a transitional house.
Other groups will get larger amounts, following council approval of staff recommendations Tuesday.
The Friends in Need Food Bank will get $14,700 to help in replacement of a delivery van, a drop of $2,300, while the Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder Society will get $10,000, and the Haney Farmers Market will get $6,000, with a grant of the same amount going to the Salvation Army’s Caring Place.
A smaller amount of $4,000 will go to the Family Education and Support Centre’s community kitchen, which shows low-income seniors how to cook and eat cheaply.
To keep some excitement in Halloween, the Maple Ridge Lions Club will get $3,000 for the fireworks display at Albion Fairgrounds on that night, while the Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows-Katzie Seniors Network will get $2,800 for its Seniors Resource Guide.
The North Fraser Therapeutic Riding Association will also get some help – $2,500 – which will help provide care for one of the horses for half a year. The group gives rides to disabled kids as a means of improving their condition.
A staff report notes that the District of Maple Ridge also partners with other groups by having paying various fees for services they perform.
Those include Adopt a Block, the Alouette River Management Society, Kanaka Education and Environmental Partnership Society, the Youth and Justice Advocacy Association and Ridge Meadows Search and Rescue.
The Alouette River society will also get another $30,000 from a separate funding source, the district’s 10-per-cent share of slot machine revenues from the community gaming centre.
That money will be used to upgrade the fish hatchery at the Rivers Heritage Centre on the South Alouette River.
The Kanaka Education and Environmental Partnership Society got a grant of the same amount last year for the new hatchery and stewardship centre now underway in Kanaka Creek Regional Park.
A new grant will be awarded to Grant Hill Partnerships, which is building Grant Hill Estates. The company is donating the proceeds of one of the show homes to the new Canuck Place in Abbotsford and is a requesting a $4,000 grant equivalent to what the company paid in building permit fees.
Staff recommend the grant be approved.