Staff
When it comes to the pecking order of Alberta’s communities, there’s no denying that Rimbey is well down on that list, but when it comes to good old community spirit and rolling up the sleeves to get the job done when necessary, big cities like Calgary, Edmonton and Red Deer leave plenty to be desired and if you need proof of that all you have to do is pay a visit to Pas-Ka-Poo Park.
Thanks to a provincial grant in the amount of $125,000 presented to the Rimbey Historical Society earlier this year by Lacombe-Ponoka MLA Ray Prins, there is some extensive work underway at the park, however there’s a lot more to it than just the grant.
“The background to the project is from the CEFP (Community Partnership Enhancement Fund) that was so generously donated by the province,” said town councilor Dave Karroll, a society member. “The other part of the financial assembly of the project comes from the historical society, and that is all generated by volunteer labour, fundraising from bingos and casinos, fundraising efforts at breakfasts and barbeques and other methods of raising funds here that are available here to the society.”
Of those, Karroll said the overwhelming support and efforts by volunteers is a huge component of the project and will most likely result in a doubling of the final price tag due to a clause that allows for the hours of volunteerism to be leveraged against the matching grant. One example of that is a fence encompassing the park that is nearing completion, which, thanks to some shrewd bargaining, some help from a corporate partner in the form of the Rimbey Co-op and the efforts of volunteers, a savings of $20,000 will be realized; a significant amount when considering the fence is 3,850 feet long and will include nine gates.
“Unfortunately, we’ve had quite a bit of vandalism going on and we have a lot of artifacts that are outside, and a lot of things with windows and glass in them and we’ve had a lot of breakage. It’s unfortunate, but I guess it’s a sign of the times so we’re trying to put up an attractive a fence as we can,” said society member Maurice Moore. “It’s going to give us the ability at night or in the wintertime, to lock up so we don’t run into these problems again. It looked like, based on the bids we were getting, that the fence was going to cost us well over $50,000, probably $52,000 to build the fence.”
With 13 buildings on the site and more than 30,000 artifacts in the collection, the society believes the fence is more than warranted, despite the intense manual labour to install it. Most remarkably, Moore is one of a few volunteers who have installed the entire fence themselves despite the fact that they are all well into their retirement years.
“There’s four old guys building the fence – all over 70 and a couple over 80 years old, including Bud Reynolds, Dennis Andersen and Barney Oldfield, and these fellows have been here virtually every day along with myself, so we’re getting the fence up at no cost and in another couple of days it’ll be completed with a few gates to add,” Karroll said.
“I’ve been a resident of Rimbey for 13-plus years and the level of volunteerism here is second to none,” he added. “The amount of volunteer hours donated in this community for special organizations like the historical society and all of the other non-profit or community-oriented organizations is just stunning.”
As impressive as that effort may be, local contractors have also shown their generosity and community spirit by first bidding competitively on various jobs on the site and have committed to then returning their stipend back to the park in the form of a donation.
“Definitely Steffen Olsen of Brix Construction has offered to help co-ordinate a combined effort of a number of contractors to perform various functions for minimal compensation and/or a pay and a cash-back donation to the organization,” Karroll said. “Steffen has been very gracious in that and we’ve got other contractors in the area that have bid very, very competitively because they know that we are a non-profit organization and it’s a community-finished product.”
Even the professionals are getting in on the action as local architect and building designer John Hull has also committed to return his work back to the park in the form of another significant donation that amounts to several thousand dollars.
As the grant runs over a two-year period, Karroll said approximately 50 to 60 per cent of the work will be completed this summer with the remainder scheduled for next summer. This year’s focus is on the fence, a new structure that will house handicapped-accessible washrooms that will be operational all year long and a new barbecue storage area. The major project in 2010 will see a significant expansion to the Smithson International Truck Museum, along with some major interior renovations.
But despite the Herculean effort put forth so far, the society is still a long way from their financial goals and is counting on the local corporate community to assist in any way possible.
Further, thanks to the province’s Community Spirit Grant, individuals can also make a financial contribution to the project, and as an added bonus, they’ll also get a bit of a tax break in the process, making it a win-win situation for all involved.
Through the grant, any and all monetary donations will be matched by the provincial government dollar-for-dollar up to $10,000, and then by 50 per cent beyond that point with all donors issued receipts for income tax purposes.
If all goes as expected, the renovated park will not only provide the community with a beautiful location for a number of events and activities, but it will also be a shining example of what can result when residents band together and give of themselves and their money for the betterment of all - even in a very small town.
“We’re really proud of the park and they way it’s been utilized. We certainly have more plans for expanding the utilization,” Karroll said. “The addition of the farmers market here to the park has been fabulous. The additional traffic that is generated here in bringing area residents to the park has been tremendous and in turn, that opens exposure to the park structure.”