Houston Link to Learning is getting a major provincial grant to renovate the former Lee’s Garden Restaurant space in the Pleasant Valley Plaza.
“This project will restore the restaurant area so it could potentially be leased as a restaurant or used as a venue for various events and activities in the community,” said Houston Link to Learning manager Marian Ells of the $607,592 grant.
It comes from the provincial Rural Economic and Infrastructure Program which is aimed at communities experiencing the impacts of closures or layoffs within the forest sector and is one of a series announced last week for Houston and area.
Successful applicants can receive 100 per cent of their project costs.
The grant will also be used to replace the heating system in the whole Plaza building, Ells said.
The Pleasant Valley Plaza had been closed but was purchased in the spring of 2022 by Houston Link to Learning and then re-opened.
Ells hopes the renovations can be done this year but cautions that contractor availability may put completion into 2024.
The non-profit agency which focuses on literacy and food security saw the purchase as a way to meet community need and to provide retail training for employees.
The purchase was assisted by a $300,000 grant provided through another provincial program called Northern Healthy Communities and administered by the Northern Development Initiative Trust in Prince George.
Also receiving a grant from the Rural Economic and Infrastructure Program is the Wet’suwet’en First Nation, the former Broman Lake Band, located between Houston and Burns Lake.
It is getting $481,000 to see if it is possible to take biomass waste and convert it into a form of foam suitable for packaging goods or for thermal insulation.
The local grant recipient list from the provincial Rural Economic and Infrastructure Program includes $83,064.35 going to the Houston Mountain Bike Association for a family riding hub.
The project continues a steady pace of additions and improvements to the mountain biking experience in Houston.
And improvements are coming to the Houston airport through the Houston Flying Club which has received $76,480 toward renovations of the main building and clearing brush away from the runway area to meet federal requirements.