Supplied: Nampa and District Museum, website

By Abby Zieverink

UFA Rural Communities Grant Program

Nampa and District Historical Society receiving $30K from UFA Rural Communities Foundation

Oct 20, 2021 | 1:32 PM

The Nampa and District Historical Society is set to receive $30,000 from the 2021 UFA Rural Communities Foundation grant program.

Back in 2019, the UFA Rural Communities Foundation announced a $500,000 commitment over the next five years to help rural communities build projects to enrich education, recreation, and culture, which provides $100,000 each year.

This year, the Nampa and District Historical Society Museum was one of five recipients of the award.

Carson Murphy, the Museum Director says they applied for the grant last year and were declined, so receiving the funding this year was very exciting.

He tells EverythingGP the grant money will be used to convert their historical United Church into a community centre that is wheelchair accessible.

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“We’re very excited because the museum is lovely, and we’re happy with the museum, but we don’t have a lot of space to deliver, like community programs; so, this will give us a space to offer those kinds of programs.”

Since the building was originally built as the United Church in the late 1940s, and given to the museum after the congregation closed for use as a community space and museum programming, Murphy suggests the building interior has been needing some renovations.

“So, the building interior is still very much stuck in the 1970s United Church,” he said.

“We’re hoping to do some renovations to freshen up the inside and make it a little bit more modern and welcoming but, and still preserve a little bit of the history of the church, but make it more of a community space.”

Murphy says currently, there is a flight of stairs that leads to the main community area, he says the plan is to add a ramp and make it wheelchair accessible.

“We’re going to be building an accessible ramp on the outside of the building, so people can access the main area much easier.”

Murphy says the hope is to start working on the project in the new year, and if everything is able to stay on track the renovations will likely be finished in late 2022.

“We have two years to complete the project, so it just depends on everything falling in place,” he explained.

“Some things might happen over the winter, it just depends on what kind of labour we can get, I guess, once we get our construction plan in place, so some might start over the winter, and then the rest will likely happen over the summer and fall of next year.”

Since it will be a community space, Murphy says residents will be able to rent out the building for events or gatherings as well.

He says after doing a survey with the community late last year, he believes residents will be very excited for this project to come to fruition.

“People are excited for things to happen to the building… to preserve it, but also, to reuse it.”