Donations, both small and large, are starting to come in for the Sunshine Coast's proposed new recreation facilities.
One failed sports club is putting every last cent of its funding into regional recreation in the hopes of building a place to practice.
The Quasar Gymnastics Club Society recently folded because it could not find an affordable place to practice, said Amerval Duplanty, one of the society's directors.
"We did have 140 members and we used to operate out of Cross-Trainers, but my agreement with them was that as soon as someone came and offered them fair market value for the space, we would move out and find another location," said Duplanty.
She soon found the Coast's booming real estate market made it impossible to find an affordable facility to rent.
"We tried to use the school's facilities, but you can only get small bits of time during the school year and you are competing with other sports teams for that space. In the summer the union has to be cleared to work so only the Fibre Arts Festival is allowed in this year. I think they booked it at least a year in advance," said Duplanty.
Once it became obvious the club could not find a facility to practice in, the society folded. Duplanty says she hopes the referendum will pass and offer a new place for the club to operate.
"There are rooms in each facility that would be suitable for their club to use," said Gerry Tretick, co-chair of the Coast Wide Recreation Facility Committee.
Duplanty talked to her board of directors and they agreed to pool the last of their money to help pay for some of the building costs.
"We have only $1,500 but we feel an obligation to channel that money to other non-profit societies that are working on providing recreation opportunities on the Coast. We are not the only small society to fall apart because we couldn't afford rent. Other societies are struggling too, and this may be a way for gymnastics to rise again from the ashes," said Duplanty.
Construction Aggregates Ltd. (CAL) has also pledged its support to regional recreation with a commitment of $375,000 worth of building materials, should the referendum pass.
"We have always supported building recreation facilities on the Coast," said Gord Doerksen, mine manager at CAL. "We feel there is a big lack of this type of recreation on the Coast and we support this district initiative for a combination of reasons for our employees and future employees. It's easier to bring people to the Coast to work if there are recreation facilities here, and it's part of our company's philosophy to be good corporate citizens. This is just one way we can show our support."
Should the referendum fail to pass, Doerksen says the commitment from CAL will still be on the table for recreation facilities in the future.
"Any money we receive will go toward lessening the expense to the taxpayer," said Doug Holmes, chief administrative officer at the Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD).
The SCRD is seeking approval to borrow up to $19,338,000 to build a pool in Sechelt and an arena in Gibsons to complement the existing facilities in each area.
Taxes for the centres will be levied from the entire Coast and will be based on a flat parcel tax for all taxpayers of $128.63 per year. An additional $79.92 per $100,000 yearly on the assessed value of improvements will pay for the operation of the facilities.
Coast residents will have their chance to vote on the proposed plan tomorrow, Saturday, June 25, from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. at various locations around the Coast.
So far a total of 946 people have taken advantage of the advance voting polls, which is the highest number of advance voters in the history of regional recreation votes on the Coast.
There have been three recreation referendums since 1998, and all have failed.
In 1998 the coast-wide recreation facilities referendum was actually voted in by a margin of 1.67 per cent, but a legal challenge was issued and the SCRD board at the time decided not to move ahead on the plan with such a slim majority in favour.
In 2001 there was a similar referendum that failed to pass by 87 votes. In 2002 a referendum on a possible Sechelt aquatic centre failed by just 29 votes.
Results from this weekend's referendum will be available online at www.scrd.
bc.ca after the votes are counted Saturday night.
"We hope to have them up within a couple of hours after the polls close, but there may be spoiled ballots and it may take longer than we anticipate, so people can just keep checking the website. I would think by late Saturday night everything should be tallied and posted on the web," said Holmes.
