A community donation campaign in Boissevain has generated thousands of dollars for the new aquatic centre being built in town.

Initially, the proposed cost for a new pool was $2.2 million, which the Municipality of Boissevain-Morton was prepared to pay for, with no borrowing, over two years through General Reserves.

The Municipality has received funding through the province’s Building Sustainable Communities (BSC) funding towards the new pool. As a requirement of the provincial funding, we must secure a non-municipal contribution, such as fundraising.

Due to the BSC requirements and additional costs, the Municipality of Boissevain-Morton and the Boissevain-Morton Parks and Recreation Board have begun fundraising.

Mike Megaffin is with Boissevain-Morton Parks and Recreation the group behind the most recent fund-raising drive. "We're trying to raise $200,000 and right now we’re more than halfway there with more than $100,000 in donations coming into the campaign.”

“The plan was to use the existing pool building but an inspection determined it needed to be retrofitted prior to opening the new pool. With that came the need to build new washroom and shower facilities for the campground because they couldn’t be in the same building. Those were the challenges we came up against.”

The Parks and Recreation board says the fund raising continues and Mike Megaffin is confident they’ll reach their goal. “The generosity has been huge. Boissevain-Morton is when a call goes out people jump to support projects and they’ve been very supportive to help this community project.”

“Our target opening date is July 15th and we’re already starting to look at staffing and lifeguards to get everything ready for that opening date.”

 

Donations are still being accepted and can be dropped off at the municipal office.