MINDEMOYA—In the opinion of a Mindemoya businessman, Central Manitoulin council should have provided a donation to the Central Manitoulin Lions Club Homecoming Weekend and Ribfest event, as it had last year. After council turned down a request for event funding, that businessman fundraised on his own to make up the amount.
“It’s about doing things right,” stated Adam Smith, owner of Jake’s Home Centre. “What council did was wrong; they made a horrendous motion. I just think it’s sad that our municipal council wouldn’t stand behind what is one of, if not the largest, festival the Island has seen.”
“In lieu of some of the council members voting against a motion to donate $2,500 to the Lions Club for the event, we have raised $3,700 from local businesses and individuals to donate to the Lions Club in lieu of this.”
The Lions Club had been successful in garnering funding support from the municipality for last year’s Homecoming Weekend and Ribfest event.
Councillor Derek Stephens, who was one of the council members who voted against making the requested donation to the Lions Club, said his biggest reason for turning down the request was due to the late funding request. “I voted against the request because I felt it came in too late. Two weeks before the event the Lions requested a donation of $5,000 and the committee agreed to decrease this to $2,500 for council’s consideration. The Lions have been planning this event for a year, they should have got the request to us in plenty of time.”
“Next year we will put a line in our budget that all groups have to apply for a funding donation from the municipality by March for any event being planned,” added Councillor Stephens.
