The Kola Outdoor Rec Center recently received a $15,000 grant from HyLife through their HyLife Fun Days 2024 initiative, Kola being one of 3 projects in Manitoba that HyLife supported this past summer with each receiving $15K.
This year's recipients were Neepawa's Habitat for Humanity Neepawa, La Broquerie Helping Hands, and the Kola Outdoor Rec Centre.
"We have steering committees for community development for a few of our urban recreation centers, and Kola has a group that's been working on refitting the roof on their outdoor skating rink," explains EDO for Wallace-Woodward, Tiffany Cameron. "It's an outdoor skating rink that has a cover over it for a greater skating experience."
"The cover needs replacing and some attention on the foundation so they're looking at doing some repair," she continues, "and HyLife, being a good supporter of the area and an employer of that area has put forward that grant. It's pretty exciting that Kola now has a kickstart for that project."
Going into the Fall season, the RM of Wallace-Woodward is partnering with the Town of Virden and the RM of Pipestone to launch a regional housing study to look at the needs of the different types of housing options and needs in their communities.
In addition to that, Cameron says they're RM is also in the process of developing their Strategic Plan.
"We're going to start laying out our vision for the next 5 to 10 years and making our goals. It's ten years down the road when we see what all happened, but it takes a lot of planning and background work that goes into making our communities great places to live," she adds.
Cameron says every community is saying the same thing.
"Finding affordable housing options for every income level is something we need to be aware of if we want our communities to grow. We're hearing of people who are wanting to come to our communities and starting businesses and taking jobs but just not being able to find appropriate accommodations, and that's a really sad thing to hear. So, we want to really address that."