Moate Tidy Towns is to receive a €10,000 funding boost, councillors were informed at Monday’s meeting of the Municipal District (February 6 ).
The funding will be sourced from the remnants of money put aside for community grants in 2016, which covered the cost of the annual Cathaoirleach’s Awards, grants to residents associations, Pride of Place, and the community activation scheme. The expenditure for 2016 amounted to €172,000 out of the €192,000 available. The remaining €20,000 will be divided evenly between the Mullingar and Athlone districts.
Mayor of Athlone, John Dolan (FG ), commended the work of Moate Tidy Towns. While he said he did not like to single out particular contributors, he was adamant that the dedicated work of Jimmy Redmond should be recognised.
Fianna Fáil’s Frankie Keena echoed Cllr Dolan’s comments. He said there is great energy among the group in Moate and praised the number of people willing to volunteer their time for the betterment of the local community.
Independent councillor, Michael O’Brien, remarked that Moate “looks great” as a result of the work of the Tidy Towns group. He welcomed the funding due to the fact that the group has been operating with very limited finance during the last few years.
