While it will continue to be known as Rotary House, it will no longer be owned by the organization for which it was named.
The Rotary Club of Canmore purchased Rotary House in 2009 in partnership with the Calgary SCOPE Society, which improves the lives of those with developmental disabilities and their families.
Rotary member Hans Helder said over the past five years, the SCOPE Society occupied its 50 per cent use time for Rotary House in its entirety, however, Rotary only occupied its share 21 per cent of the time.
Helder said the organization put additional effort into generating usage for the two-bedroom unit in Spring Creek Mountain Village, but still struggled to fill it.
“After we spent some time thinking about this, we decided to conduct a formal review of Rotary House,” he said. “As a result of that review process being approved we shared that information with SCOPE.”
Helder said within a week the other organization asked Rotary if it would consider selling its half to them and the local service group considered the offer.
“Basically we decided we should have a serious look at this … a 20 to 22 per cent usage was not a good stewardship of our investment.”
While Rotary has decided to disinvest in the property, which is used by SCOPE Society to send families to Canmore for a needed break and vacation, the organization solicited donations from community groups to purchase the it, including Canmore council.
Helder said Rotary has engaged its stakeholders involved in Rotary House and this month approached council for its approval to sell the property. Council had previously voted to support the project with $40,000.
He told council the unit would be sold at its assessed value for tax purposes and the funds redirected into other Rotary programs. He added there is also a 10-year restriction on sale of the property.
But Helder asked council to consider letting Rotary keep the $40,000 previously granted to them to use for future programming.
Council voted against the request in a 4-3 decision and as a result, the grant funds will be returned to the municipality.
However, a motion by Mayor John Borrowman set out that the funds will be held in reserve and available in future for a project related to providing emergency shelter space and if not used by Rotary in three years, the organization will be asked to return to indicate continued interest.
Rotary and SCOPE each raised $200,000 to purchase the unit, while SCMV developer Frank Kernick contributed a further third of the units cost to develop. Kernick has contributed vacation rentals in cabins at Spring Creek for several years prior to 2009 for SCOPE families.
