President’s Message
With our community casino dates drawing near on June 8 and 9, I have been asked about the use of casino proceeds and how they benefit Cambrian Heights. The Provincial government, through Alberta Gaming, Liquor and Cannabis (AGLC), regulates how the casino proceeds may be utilized by the community.
First, some operational expenses may be paid with casino proceeds to support maintenance of the hall and its facilities. These funds supplement the income generated from the hall facility rentals and membership sales without which the maintenance of the community hall could not be financed.
Additions to our facilities over the past few years have been partially funded by casino proceeds, including ice rink seating and lighting, equipment to allow flooding and scraping of the ice rinks, the outdoor fireplace and hockey nets. Proceeds have also been used to help purchase a new hall event sign, upgrade the kitchen, and add the mural to the outside of the community hall.
Second, the AGLC permits sponsorship of programs where no fees are charged. We’ve used these funds for our annual Polar Party and free pumpkin giveaway, film nights, Lego contests, the spring bicycle maintenance workshop, community cleanup, trivia night, volunteer appreciation event, outdoor concerts, and other social events. If you have ideas for other events and are willing to volunteer, let us know as we have the funds to support more community building events.
In short, casino funding is critical to maintaining the community hall and related facilities for the Community Association. Making full use of these facilities relies on volunteers to organize events or programs that benefit Cambrian Heights. Board members are always coming up with new ideas but have to balance that workload with their primary role of liaising with the City when managing issues of development, traffic, safety, and general urban planning. We welcome new ideas from our residents and are able to support them thanks to sound financial management over the years.
Over 40 volunteers are needed to meet our obligations for our June 8 and 9 Casino dates to realize this critical funding source. If you have volunteered before or want to help for a first time, and are able to offer your time for a few hours one of those days, please contact our Casino Director David Babich at [email protected] for more information.
To thank our community volunteers, we will be hosting our annual volunteer appreciation event on Thursday, April 16. We hope to see all the volunteers who’ve helped out at events or contributed to the Community Association throughout the year.
We will continue to monitor Development Permits in Cambrian Heights with the background of our City Council’s review of the Blanket Rezoning regulations enacted in August 2024. A public hearing is scheduled for March 23 to solicit public input on the resolution passed by Council to repeal Blanket Rezoning in December to return to the previous 1P2007 Bylaw. That vote is currently scheduled for August. If you have comments on these deliberations, we encourage you to communicate your concerns to our Ward 4 Councillor, DJ Kelly, at [email protected]. Current regulations will continue in the interim to allow the development of up to four units with secondary suites on what was a single-family residential lot.
We also remind you of our biweekly Farmers Market dates Saturday April 11, 25, and May 9 from 11:00 am to 3:00 pm in the Community Hall. Vendor information can be found on our website https://www.cambrianheightscommunity.com/farmers-market.
Daryl Connolly
President, CHCA
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