After being turned down for funding by the town for the second time in three years, the Fort Frances Visserettes continue to struggle financially, club president Bob Grynol warned last week.
“We’re majorly disappointed that the town turned us down,” he lamented. “We asked for [financial] help in any way because it’s difficult to run high-calibre programs when you’re hurting financially.
“We can’t run the best programs while we’re trying to keep our costs downs,” he stressed, adding they have no money in the bank and operate on a monthly basis.
The town has assisted the club in the past, giving it $7,000 in 1994.
But Grynol said the club pays that much in taxes to the town each year. He also noted the Visserettes had to acquire a facility (at 835 McKenzie Ave.) while other clubs–like the Aquanauts and minor hockey–are held in buildings which are the financial responsibility of the town.
“They have buildings paid for by taxpayers’ money so the users don’t have to worry about a mortgage. [But] we’re a recreation club, too,” argued Grynol.
Grynol said they still have an outstanding mortgage of about $65,000, pointing out the price tag originally was in the neighborhood of about $135,000.
Financial requests also have been turned down by various businesses, he added, leaving the club to raise money through fundraisers.
“We service about 300 people through our programs but we don’t want to raise costs [for the various programs],” Grynol said. “Plan B says we’re going to have to continue to struggle by selling raffle tickets and chocolates.”
Grynol suggested part of the problem why the Visserettes can’t receive town funding is the fact money already has been allocated for the auditorium and new ice surface.
“Maybe our timing is bad,” he said.
But Mayor Glenn Witherspoon said it really isn’t the town’s policy to award money to individual clubs, adding they don’t have a plan in place regarding such allocations.
Rather, he said the town deals with each financial request on an individual basis.
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