While curlers are sweeping and throwing rocks at the Royal City Curling Club through the fall and winter, gymnasts will be tumbling come summer.
New Westminster city council has approved a $35,000 funding request from the Royal City Curling Club to assist with facility maintenance projects at its facility at 75 East Sixth Ave. The club has already completed about $187,134 in upgrades to the facility.
The club isn’t able to apply for the funding through the city’s grant program because the program doesn’t provide retroactive funding (and the work has already been done) and doesn’t fund capital projects on city-owned property.
Royal City Curling Club manager Mike Munsie recently thanked council for approving the grant to help cover some of the costs of the “significant upgrades” to the facility. He said the work included competing a roofing project, refacing cedar siding on the facility’s exterior and doing lighting upgrades.
“That puts our facility in top-notch condition, which is 52 years young now,” he said. “We had a facility assessment report done two or three years back to identify what our needs were. I am happy to report that there is nothing significant now in the way of any major capital expenditures for the next 10 years. That now allows us to keep our programs going.”
In addition to being a curling facility from September until the end of March, Munsie said the building is used for programs like roller derby in the off season. He said the city’s parks and recreation department will be offering its gymnastics programs in the building from April until August when the ice is out.
“The city has had a longstanding partnership with the Royal City Curling Club,” said Mayor Jonathan Cote. “It is a pretty unique arrangement where it is on city-owned land but it is a private facility on there. Ultimately, it is a facility that is open up to the entire community.”
