The Alvinston Optimists are ready to roll out the next phase of their fundraising campaign for the local arena, but they’re wondering why municipal council is putting money into renovating other parts of the building.

The community group wants to raise $600,000 to add an outdoor pavilion on the Brooke-Alvinston-Inwood Community Centre as well as improve the canteen and washrooms.

Jamie Armstrong recently spoke to councillors about a new mail-out campaign called “Raising the Roost” a play on words based on the new name of Alvinston’s baseball teams, the Alvinston Riverhawks.

“We thought we could capitalize on that by trying to tie into the Riverhawks theme,” he told councillors.

Flyers will be mailed out and there will be visits to local businesses to request a commitment to the project.

The campaign also includes banners for businesses which donate large amounts to the project.

Armstrong is also hopeful by launching a formal campaign, they may be able to attract grants for the project.

But Armstrong became concerned after listening to council talk about putting $30,000 into the 2017 budget to hire an engineer to look at what could be done with the upper room at the arena.

“The question does come up, what is the usage of the hall… we have 200 kids in minor ball…

“The Optimists use that hall for meetings but we thought this was more of a priority.

“Maybe you could reconsider helping us out with our project first and then, we can help fund raise for the project upstairs.”