Curling club request suffers takeout

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This article was published 18/11/2014 (3439 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It is early in the game for this new Steinbach city council but it didn’t take extra ends for them to decide that a request for funds from the Steinbach Curling Club was a little over the hog line.

The club has just begun throwing rocks in its new rink, which it is leasing from the city, on Oct. 27. The curling rink, along with the new movie theatre, make up the first phase of the city’s multiplex recreation and cultural facility. The city project cost $6.7 million.

A letter penned by club president Jake Loeppky requested that the city cancel $1,456.80 in taxes owed by the club for their old building which was demolished earlier this year. Loeppky said they could use the funds for equipment in the new rink, like appliances, a vacuum system, furniture and chairs.

“Thank you for considering this request,” Loeppky wrote. “We would not be making it if we were not already convinced of your generosity and co-operative spirit.”

Unfortunately, the only co-operative spirit on this night was that the request should be denied.

“We’ve invested enough already,” said councillor Jac Siemens who quickly made a motion for the request to be turned down and was seconded by councillor Susan Penner.

Penner recalled an earlier plan for the curling rink to raise $350,000 for the project but, as Penner pointed out, that never happened.

“I suspect they can cover the 1,400 dollars and change,” she said.

Council increased the budget for the multiplex project in January, settling on the $6.7 million figure, after bids overshot the original $5.5 million budget for the project.