High River council spent its last meeting before the election with the enviable task of discussing where to spend some movie money.

The Last of Us television production paid $100,000 to the Town for the use of the former Beachwood property for filming last year with the stipulation the money go to a legacy project for the town's kids.

The President of the High River Bike Park Society, Jeff Hamilton, is glad council put 80 per cent of that money towards their project.

"It's not only me, there's a group of us that are very excited so it was very pleasant news that we received."

The $80,000 from the show's producers, along with a large contribution from Cargill and other donations, should allow the park to be built with work starting this spring or summer depending on when construction crews can get to it.

"That puts us really really close, we've had a couple businesses step forward and supply material at an unbelievable price which has cut down on some of the costs so we're very close."

He says they need about $20,000 for amenities like picnic tables, garbage cans and bleachers for kids to sit while watching their friends on the track.

They'll be holding a bottle drive Saturday, Oct. 16 at the High River Sobeys in their continued effort to raise funds for the project.

The remaining 20 per cent will go to the Spitzee School playground project to get them to about $120,000, the point where they can apply for a matching provincial grant for Phase One of their project.

They already have $99,000 donated for the two-phase project.

Usually film crews are charged a thousand dollars a day to use High River streets and other areas for filming and that money goes into the Community Vitality Fund and the Arts fund but this money was over and above that and the stipulation was to use it for a legacy project.

During discussions it was learned the producers had taken down three trees but they paid $15,000 separately for those.

That money is going into the town's tree budget.

 

Questions, comments or story ideas? e-mail news@highriveronline.com