A $540,000 fundraising campaign is about to launch in Dresden.
North Kent Coun. Joe Faas said the goal is to enhance the sports field at Lambton-Kent Composite School.
“The Dresden Community Development Association is a group of people in the community that want to re-develop the school property,” Faas said. “It is utilized right now with soccer and is very actively used, but the field is in bad shape. They want to improve it by putting in a running track, ball diamonds and that kind of stuff.”
Faas entered a notice of motion at Monday nights meeting, requesting the Municipality to cover 25 per cent of the project at a cost of $134,000.
Faas said LKCS teachers Ian Avery and Janice Wranich have taken the lead on the project and they have put together a business plan for the project.
“They have done a very extensive job on it, they are very committed,” faas said. “It’s on school property but it is going to be utilized by the whole community especially soccer, and minor baseball, track and field. They want to do all they can do to develop that property and make a good job of it. They came to the municipality because they want them to be a partner.”
Faas said it is not out of the ordinary for the Municipality to back such projects – having committed funds to the $1.6 million CKSS project in Chatham back in 2002.
“It’s smaller in scale, but it is still a vital part of the community,” Faas said. “It will also extend the trails system in Dresden, a greening program with trees as well.”
Faas added: “It’s a true community project. Local organizations have agreed to partner with them, they haven’t committed to funding yet but that comes down the road. Sometimes it takes the municipality to be a lead on that part of it. The school board has already committed to $50,000, plus they’ve agreed to the on-going operational costs once it is built.”
Faas said it’s a healthy program for Dresden.
“Right now they can’t really compete because they don’t have the proper facilities to train,” he said.
Faas’ motion will be debated at the April 28 council meeting.
