Prince George, B.C. – The District of Mackenzie is a little closer to  having the dollars it needs for its recreation  centre  upgrade.

The Regional District of Fraser Fort George has approved  a $250 thousand dollar grant to the community project which  has a price tag of  just under  $7.4 million dollars.

The Regional District’s contribution  will come from the Community Works Gas Tax  Fund, which has been used in the past to  help fund projects  such as a  new sewer lagoon in McBride,  and  water  service upgrades in that  community.

The District of Mackenzie has already secured $6.2 million dollars  in funding   but even with the  grant from the Regional District, the project will be  short  by nearly a million dollars.

Mackenzie Mayor, Pat Crook   says the funding shortfall could mean a change in the  upgrade plan “We’re trying to prune it back a bit because we’re trying not to use   tax dollars. So we’re still looking  for grants.”

“We’re just going into the public consultation period of what the people want to see and where they want to see it” says Mayor Crook “Once we  figure that out,  we have the final architecture and  what the final bill will be.”  He says they would like to have enough funds secured to  have  some wriggle room  “Typically these things go over budget and so we’ll try to prune it back so if it goes over budget, it  will actually be  on budget.”

The public consultation will start in September.   He says  although a basic design is already complete,   the consultation will  see if the  residents of Mackenzie still want the same thing “because   the current plan  would actually remove the  curling rink  and put a new building up there.  So we have to look at the numbers and see if we have the money to  put a new ice making  facility in there and whether the numbers justify a $250 thousand dollar investment into a new ice making   project and keeping that  building, so there’s still a lot of  consultation   that has to take place.”