The Prospect Lake Soccer Club is cashing in on Saanich’s interest-free loan program to help build a changing room house at Layritz Park.
The $250,000 contingency loan – approved by council Monday – will help build a facility that will benefit other users of the park, such as Layritz Little League and those who use nearby regional trails, said club president Kevin Watson.
“We already had this loan approved from the artificial turf replacement in 2007,” Watson said. “So we rolled that over to the current project.”
The club had previously secured $500,000 through fundraising and a provincial grant, but the district loan means the project can move ahead more quickly, Watson said.
The loan must be repaid within five years if accessed by the club.
Mayor Frank Leonard said the interest-free loans are particularly beneficial to projects for community sporting groups.
“Myself and others found when we were involved with our kids, you’d do fundraising and you’d never get the reward, it would be for the next generation,” he said. “So it was always hard to raise funds because you knew it wouldn’t happen for your own kids and that same motivation wasn’t there. So we came up with this interest free loan program, and it’s proven to be quite successful.”
editor@saanichnews.com
