There were rapid mathematical calculations from councillors and staff required on Wednesday when the Central Otago District Council (CODC) considered applications for district-wide community grants during its monthly meeting.

A late addition to the applications from the Central Otago Queenstown Trail Network Trust to pay for a peer review as part of the resource consent for the Kawarau Gorge Trail, was a request in search of a benefactor, and remained so after Wednesday’s discussions.

The council has $151,000 to distribute in community grants over two funding rounds in the 2023/2024 financial year, and on Wednesday had 10 applications to consider, requesting a total of $182,847.38.

The late request for $10,686.38 from the Central Otago Queenstown Trail Network Trust had already been addressed by the Cromwell Community Board in its September 13 meeting, and referred back to council.

At that meeting, executive trustee Janeen Wood told the board that the trust had received an invoice for the review in the consent application for a cycle trail from Kawarau to Bannockburn, for an amount that was more than they spent on the application.

The trust had offered to pay $3000 when it received the invoice last year, but no-one in the council could adjust the fee and the trust was "directed" to the Cromwell Community Board to apply for a grant.

Board members were not convinced it was a board responsibility and, at that time, Central Otago District Mayor Tim Cadogan suggested the application be referred to the CODC as the cycle trails brought money to all of the region.

Community development advisor Rebecca Williams explained why the application was steered to Cromwell initially.

“Staff go through a process when grant applications come in of trying to figure out the best fit,” she said.

“Given that it was for the Cromwell to Queenstown leg of the project and the demands that were on this particular council round, that is why I veered towards the Cromwell Community Board.”

Councillor Tamah Alley asked if anyone who had been at the Cromwell board meeting could explain further and Tim said he had advocated that he did not think it was Cromwell’s responsibility alone.

During discussions, Cr Stu Duncan said to cut the request from consideration.

There was a lot of other funding available for trails, he said.

“It’s not going to jeopardise the trail going ahead.”

The council declined the application.

Explaining other applications and her recommendations, Rebecca said she had based all grants on the 2022 - 2023 level, despite organisations having asked for increases and costs having increased.

Regarding applications from the Bowel Cancer Aotearoa Charitable Trust and the Cancer Society Otago Southland for $5000 each, she recommended they be declined, “due to the precedent it would set for other health-related applications”.

A request from the Good Bitches - Baking it Better programme for $3605 towards costs was declined.

“It falls into more of a wants category than a needs category,” Tim said.

Given that the recommended amounts of the remaining applications reached $127,555, that the recommendations were less than requested, and the staff time and costs involved in a second funding round, the council decided to distribute the $151,000 available between the applicants. 

Cr Neil Gillespie suggested a 10% adjustment to the remaining applicants, which did not take any over the amount applied for.

The successful applicants, for a total of $151,000, were:

The Life Education Trust Heartland Otago Southland, $4000 for subsidising school fees for delivery of the programme; Central Otago District Arts Trust, $44,000 towards operational costs; Central Otago Health Inc, $7556 towards administrative costs; Central Otago Heritage Trust, $44,000 toward employment costs of a part-time heritage coordinator; Sport Otago, $46,444 towards employment of three staff based in Central Otago; Volunteer South, $5000 towards a new initiative supporting capability and capacity in community groups across the region.