This article is from page 32 of the 2007-10-02 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 32 JPG
THE newly formed Miltown Malbay Resource Company Ltd, a voluntary organisation set up to look after the running of the West Clare Resources Centre has applied to the Govern- ment for staffing finance.
The centre was refused the fund- ing last year, as the application did not go through the required red tape. The applicants applied to Pobal for the finance, but it was told it should have gone through a local partner- ship body before arriving there.
On Thursday last the resource com- pany sent an application to Rural Re- source Development Limited.
Co-founder of the resource centre Cllr Christy Curtin (Ind) said the centre requires one full time staff member and one part time.
“We are on a wing and a payer to maintain the management of this centre and it 1s running due to the good will of the companies and or- ganisations involved,” he said.
“I think the centre is ideally suited to the scheme.”
The building opened in 1939 as a
school before closing in 1985. After a brief history as a secondary school woodwork room the building closed and went into decline.
In the 1990s Michael Mahoney and Cllr Curtain saw the need for a building for the library and a dental clinic in the west Clare town, so the 27 windows were repaired and the building refurbished and opened.
Today the West Clare Recourse Centre in Miltown Malbay served an estimated 3,000 people through- out the year, including 1,000 who are subscribed readers at the library.
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Among its many services provid- ed is the library; youth reach pro- gramme, art classes, dental clinic and child health clinic, and the wel- fare office and advice bureaus.
More than 70 people visit the elderly care centre three times a week, while 200 people aged between 18 and 90 took part in the ECDL course.
Cllr Curtain also highlighted the need for the services to be expanded to include speech therapy and physi- Oo) i ates: 1 One