YORKTON - At the March 3 regular meeting of Yorkton Council the Yorkton United Football Club (YUFC) appeared asking the city for a loan to help the organization install two outdoor boarded 5v5 turf fields.
The proposed location of the fields would be within the gated area attached to the building on Gladstone at the entrance to Logan Flats soccer fields, Michelle McCrea - President of YUFC told Council.
In addition to two 50'x90' fields, this project will include LED lights (dark sky compliant), upper netting and covered bleachers. The fields will have silica sand turf, two endline nets and four sideline nets which provide us with the option to divide the fields and small mini sessions or drills. These fields are semi-permanent and could be moved in the future.
The overall project will have a cost estimated at $532,000, said McCrea. To facilitate the project moving forward they organization requested an interest free loan from the City of Yorkton of $545,000 to be paid back over the span of ten years to complete the project.
YUFC will pay $55,000 to the City yearly as repayment.
At the March 24 meeting of Council the loan bylaw was back before Council for second and third reading.
The bylaw proposes to lend the Yorkton United Football Club Inc. (YUFC) $545,000.00 for the construction of two mini-pitches located at the Gladstone Storage Compound adjacent to the Logan Green Soccer Complex, explained Taylor Morrison, Director of Recreation & Community Services with the city.
“The proposed bylaw was advertised and circulated in accordance with the City’s public notification requirements, including advertisement in the local paper, at City Hall, and on the City’s website. As of the date of this report no inquiries had been received, and written submissions and persons wishing to speak to the bylaw had the opportunity to present to Council just moments ago,” he explained.
Morrison said the city was in a position to financially make the loan.
“As noted during introduction and first reading of the proposed bylaw, the City has sufficient cash flow to fund a project of this size. Additionally, Administration has received and reviewed YUFC’s most recent financial statements and does consider the Club to be in good standing and that they will be able to follow through on their repayment commitments over the next 10 years,” he said.
The final readings were both given unanimous support.
