A handful of projects and non-profits in the community will be seeing some extra support from the city of Swift Current after Monday's meeting of city council.

Sitting on $990,495 dollars from the Federal Safe Restart Program, the city decided to re-allocate just over $751,000 of it towards a pair of projects and various non-profits in the community that would otherwise have been left underserved due to another grant's departure.

Ostensibly, the Safe Restart Program was created in order to assist municipalities in putting precautions in place to minimize the impact of COVID-19 while remaining operational; plexiglass barriers, PPE, cleaning supplies, etc...

But the municipalities were given broad flexibility to determine where those funds were needed.

Jim Jones is the General Manager of Community Services with the city.

"The mandate of this program is to remain active in a time of constraint and to assist municipality's efforts to protect the health and safety of those groups decimated by the lack of their ability to schedule events, fundraise, or simply prepare, for the past two seasons."

Organizations like the Swift Current Ag & Ex, the Swift Current 57s, the Lyric Theatre and the Windscape Kite Festival; which have all now experienced two seasons of cancellations while "minimizing their footprint and holding onto the hope of bringing volunteer-driven events back to the citizens of Swift Current and surrounding area."

Meanwhile, a portion of the funds would also serve a pair of internal projects, with the first being the completion of a new strategic plan which Swift Current Online reported on in March of this year. And the second being the Active Transportation Expansion Project which was also discussed during Monday's meeting of city council; which will see 11 kilometres of pathway, sidewalk, boardwalk and bank rehabilitation along the Chinook Parkway.