Members of the Community Vitality Advisory Committee went before High River town council Monday to bring them up to date on their first year of activities.

Chair Karen Orser says about $46,000 of their $60,000 went to big events like the Balloon Festival, Show and Shine and Little Britches and Santa Claus parades.

"It's great that the town has some important signature events that I think are important to everybody and the committee was aware early on that those would eat up a big portion of it (the available money)," Orser says. "I think we were quite conservative as we made our way through the first year because we weren't sure exactly where the chips would fall and how much money we would have to allocate to other community projects that are really exciting and innovative and really draw on the strengths of the community."

Orser says they had a great committee that was able to take on the awarding of funds to community projects aimed at bringing people together.

She says they got requests totalling about $100,000 and are hoping to get $10,000 added to their budget in 2018 so they can accommodate more groups.

Orser says they gave out close to the $60,000 the town had provided and had another $18,000 that was carried over from other projects.

 

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