Hopes are two large screens to flank the stage at Victoria Playhouse Petrolia arrive in the next couple of months, says Petrolia’s arts and communications director.
Hopes are the two large screens that will soon flank the stage at the historic Victoria Playhouse Petrolia arrive in the next couple of months, the town’s arts and communications director says.
“They’re all sitting in some place so, as soon as they get here, we have the rest of the infrastructure prepared for them to just basically plug in,” Laurissa Ellsworth said about the additions on order.
The two screens, she added, will show advertisements and program information before shows, helping cut program printing costs up to 70 per cent, while displaying show clips and closeup video during performances at the Victoria Hall theater in the picturesque Lambton County town.
Helping with that investment is $117,000 from the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario that was announced at the playhouse Wednesday.
“There’s nothing but gratitude in this building for the support,” Ellsworth said about the grant money.
The funding will help pay for about half the screens’ cost, as well as the cost of a paperless ticketing entry system at the theatre, while extending performances of the theatre’s production of When Irish Eyes are Smiling from three to six weeks.
London North Center MP Peter Fragiskatos, parliamentary secretary to the minister of national revenue, made the announcement about this and five other grants on behalf of Helena Jaczek, the minister responsible for FedDev Ontario.
There was roughly $1.5 million in total announced for six initiatives aimed at boosting tourism and community infrastructure, recognizing “that during COVID-19, organizations have had a difficult time, for obvious reasons,” Fragiskatos said.
“And at the same time, if we’re going to meaningfully turn the page on the pandemic, we need to support these organizations that are really so crucial in communities.”
Nearly $700,000 has been earmarked for a $932,000 YMCA expansion project in Petrolia that will add soccer fields, tennis courts, and 250 to 300 square meters of fitness studio space, which is expected to open by March 2023.
Adding that space means there will be room to run programs for adults and youth simultaneously, said Soyuth Sok, the YMCA’s regional manager for health, fitness and aquatics.
About $47,000 was announced for the Kiwanis Club of Forest, pegged for a $1.4-million renovation project at Forest’s Kineto Theatre.
Another $124,000 was awarded for park and pickleball court upgrades at the Arkona Community Center in Lambton Shores, $450,000 was granted for a $610,000 skate park upgrade at Sarnia’s Tecumseh Park, and $100,000 was earmarked for the Bluewater Borderfest concerts.
“This definitely helped us weather the storm through COVID and get us back on track,” said concert festival board co-chair Brian McNair, noting the Borderfest grant was split between an October COVID relief event in 2021 and this year’s recent festival in Sarnia, overall covering about five to seven per cent of costs.
All but roughly $215,000 of the overall funding comes through FedDev Ontario’s Canada Community Revitalization Fund, government officials said. The rest is through the agency’s Tourism Relief Fund.