By Dave Lefebvre
With $1 million set aside for the Plant Pool, organizers of the project are hopeful they will raise the remaining $5 million before the end of the year.
The City of Ottawa placed $1 million in a reserve fund for the pool as part of this year’s budget and another million may follow.
“We have $1 million committed for sure. The additional million we will have to wait and see,” says Somerset Coun. Elisabeth Arnold.
According to fund-raisers, the money was necessary to show corporate sponsors the city supports the restoration of the pool.
“We were really unable to do any serious fund-raising without any financial commitment from the city,” says Arnold.
Though the city’s budget originally proposed $2 million for the pool, fund-raisers are happy with the new funding.
Fund-raisers needed a boost, having collected only $30,000, in over a year. Sally Rutherford of the Plant Pool Recreation Association says the group can now begin targeting corporate sponsors and foundations.
“Trying to go to people and say ‘Would you please give us $50, 000 in case some day this city is going to actually commit to this’ is not much of a strategy,” Rutherford says.
The restoration is expected to cost $6 million. Arnold says that through an aggressive fund-raising campaign, the group can reach this goal by the millennium.
However, the additional $1 million, which Arnold expects possibly by March, could take up to two years — and may not come at all — says city treasurer Mona Monkman.
The additional money depends on the city’s negotiations of payments in lieu of property taxes. Sometimes, the federal government wants to re-assess its property taxes. The Plant Pool will only get the money if the property taxes are not decreased during this assessment.
“Like taxpayers, they sometimes review the assessed value of their properties and want changes made like a taxpayer appealing an assessment,” Monkman says.
Regardless, Arnold says the current million represents a strong backing from the City of Ottawa, and mayor Jim Watson is optimistic the city will set aside more money.
“I’m hoping that we’ll know sometime in the next couple of months whether we’re that successful in negotiating property taxes,” says Watson.“It would be nice to get the money firmed up.”
The group plans to organize their fund-raising efforts in the next two weeks.