Chester-Municipal Chamber Needs Grant Money Swiftly

The Chester-Municipal Chamber of Commerce is looking for its grant money from the municipality in a more timely fashion. The funds are used to operate the Visitor Information Centre in the summer and have been transferred from the municipality in August. However, President Ben Wiper says he'd like to see the money come through by the end May. He says the organization has been forced to use it membership dues to operate the VIC until the grant money is available. "Because otherwise we end up operating the VIC for three or four months without knowing the money is coming and yet we are already spending money we don't have. We're using the membership dues for our chamber and not all of our members agree with that - it's already been a bit of a contentious issue for us - not overly but for some members it is," The chamber is also asking for a multi year funding commitment from the municipality in addition to an increase in its grant funding to $25,000 - an increase of $4,000 compared to last year. Chester Council deferred the decision to its budget deliberations and will re-visit the request in the coming weeks.