Wyevale ball diamond LED lighting initiative donors will be getting a refund after it was discovered that the current light poles can't handle the weight of the proposed system.
The matter was raised at the recent regular meeting of Tiny Township council, as acting CAO Haley Leblond informed council and the public that the township required legal advice from CRA to release the charitable donations amounting to $17,500 back to donors, as the project gets deferred back to the 2025 capital project list for budget deliberations.
According to Leblond who paraphrased the CRA response, the advice to Tiny was that: “you can proceed, but the recommendation would be first of all to have council’s blessing to proceed in refunding those donations with some caveats to ensure that the donors understand that they could be reassessed, and other issues could happen when they file their tax returns.”
Public works director Tim Leitch explained that the initial scope of the project was looking at the lighting replacement from halogen bulbs to a newer LED system for better safety and illumination of the diamond and area, but a drone examination of the light poles revealed cracks which could have been caused by netting.
“They’re safe,” Leitch assured council, “we don’t have a safety issue at the field. That was the first question asked.
“But the second was: Would we be able to enhance and upgrade the lighting systems? And they did not recommend that we add that extra loading to it, and that we proceed to go out and look at replacing the poles at the same time as the lighting.”
Leitch added that the pricing had been updated and added to the 2025 capital project considerations to be presented to council.
“And also, we apologize for these delays that did happen,” said Leitch. “It is a project that we know is very passionate for the local individuals that are involved, and we appreciate what they’re doing to help us move this project along.”
Mayor Dave Evans also expressed apologies by stating “it’s not something we had planned”, and that “the message really is we did want to do this."
Leblond said that donors requested the donations back, but with the understanding that they still wanted the project to continue. Coun. Steffen Walma added that he had spoken with multiple donors who were still supportive but “a little frustrated” at the pace of progress.
“One donor has assured me that they will be back at the table for the project in 2025, if and when we’re installing poles and lights,” said Walma.
Council passed the motion which read that while the township had sought legal advice “related to the refunding of charitable donations due to CRA implications and rules governing donations received as a corporation”, that staff would be directed to refund donations as requested, and to “advise of potential CRA implications as a result of charitable receipts issued”.
Archives of council meetings are available to view on the township’s YouTube channel.
