Welland Heritage Council Recieves Trillium Funding for Renos

Welland Heritage Council receives funding for renos
By ALLAN BENNER/Tribune Staff
Posted 10 months ago
WELLAND — The leaking roof and a rickety staircase at Welland Heritage Council and Multicultural Centre's East Main St. offices will soon be repaired.

The Heritage Council was one of 11 organizations across Ontario that received grants from the Community Capital Fund earlier this week.

With the $200,000 grant will help to make its old building last for a few more years — until a new facility can be built to replace it, said Claire Masswohl, the Heritage Council's executive director.

Prior to the funding announcement, Masswohl said, the Heritage Council was "at the cross roads" not knowing whether to wait for a new building or invest more money for urgently-needed building upgrades. Funding came at a "really, really good time" for the organization.

Besides addressing safety concerns, the funding will address accessibility issues, Masswohl said.

"By 2012, all offices need to be in compliance with accessibility issues, and we absolutely want to be in compliance," she said. "We'll be putting accessible doors on the front of the building, and renovating a washroom on our main floor."

She said a recent engineering study indicated the Heritage Council building needed as much as $500,000 to "bring it all back to its former glory." Since then, the organization invested a few hundred thousand on some structural repairs to the building — particularly on second-floor apartments used by people immigrating to Canada.

The $200,000 grant, administered through the Ontario Trillium Foundation, will be provided over a two-year period to pay for the renovations that will also include repairs to offices and flooring in the building.

In the meantime, the Heritage Council is working toward securing property to build a new facility.

abenner@wellandtribune.ca
http://www.wellandtribune.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=3017755
Ontario Trillium Website: www.otf.ca