Columbia Shuswap Regional District directors voted to maintain support for a downtown college campus in Salmon Arm.
But the amount they contribute has been reduced from $12,000 last year to $8,500.
A total of $6,000 was allocated from the Shuswap Economic Development budget and approved by the board.
The remaining $2,500 will come from grant in aid funding from Electoral Area C South Shuswap and Area E rural Sicamous.
Area D Falkland-Silver Creek-Ranchero director René Talbot chose not to contribute to the project this year.
And Area E director Rhona Martin lightened her contribution by $500.
Reducing funding to Salmon Arm’s Downtown Community Campus project is Martin’s way of saying she’s not pleased with Okanagan College.
Martin says that while she supports a downtown campus for Salmon Arm, and she knows it is a separate issue, she has repeatedly, but to no avail, tried to encourage college officials to provide courses in outlying areas.
“There are students right now who need to be educated and they can’t get into Salmon Arm to take courses,” she said, defending her decision to reduce her contribution to $1,000. “At every rural meeting I have brought this to the college but they’ve ignored it and this is the only way I can make a point.”
The late Ted Bacigalupo, former South Shuswap director, had in previous discussions, also decided to reduce Area C’s contribution from $3,000 to $1,500.
Interim Area C director Jack McInally questioned the “if you build it they will come,” concept, explaining he was not sure this would be the case.
But the downtown campus project was quickly and staunchly defended by Coun. Debbie Cannon who represents the City of Salmon Arm at the regional district table.
“I feel the proposal covers a lot of areas and answers these questions,” she said. “What we found in the business study is that the college can’t grow here (in the current site), so they looked at courses they could offer that would be appealing to take. Looking at the agricultural component will actually get rural areas more involved.”