County councillors provided a number of groups with operating cash for the coming year at their February meeting – after streamlining the grant process last year.
The county provides cash for three categories of scholarships: $200, Grant McLellan award; $500 each for qualified graduating high school students, for a total $5,000; and $1,000 for a county student attending University of Western Ontario.
The county also provided cash for various agricultural groups that are exempt from application.
Agricultural societies received $500 each. Those are for Aberfoyle, Arthur, Drayton-Mapleton, Erin, Fergus, Harriston-Minto, Mount Forest and Palmerston. The Wellington Farm and Home Safety Association, the County Plowmen’s Association and the Soil and Crop Improvement Association each received $500, and the county 4-H association got $1,500.
In the community programs category, the Community Resource Centre, East Wellington Community Services and Food Bank, the Victoria Park Seniors Centre, and the Career Education Council each received $2,000.
The North Wellington Senior Council, the Door Youth Centre in Centre Wellington and Friends of Mill Creek each received $1,000. Another five groups received $500 each, for a total of $17,000 for community programs.
The county also provided $5,900 for community events.
That includes: $400 for the Volunteer Centre of Guelph-Wellington, $2,000 for the Elora Centre for the Arts, $1,500 for the Canadian Conservatory of Music and $2,000 for Sensational Elora.
There were also several “special circumstances” grants worth a total of $23,000.
Those were: $19,500 for the Wellington County Buy Local Buy Fresh map project and $3,500 for Ad Vox.
The total requested in that category was $41,000, but councillors were tightening the reins.
The county also made transfers of cash to other organizations including the Guelph-Wellington Business Enterprise and the MacDonald Stewart Art Centre.
