Ed: Hats off to Ray Murphy for fixing the old Basilica Rec Centre. The Church had neither the funds nor inclination to make the Rec Centre accessible. Murphy is a great businessman and humanitarian and deserves all the credit for making the building the centre of the community.
JIM DAY
The Guardian
A non-profit recreation centre in Charlottetown is getting a huge injection of cash from a multi-level government fund that is normally aimed at helping municipal governments improve their infrastructure.
Businessman Ray Murphy said he worked long and hard to win financial support for the Murphy’s Community Centre in Charlottetown under the Municipal Rural Infrastructure Fund (MRIF).
Last week, his facility was one of six projects highlighted as getting the nod for funding through the program. The remaining five projects are all partnerships between the federal government, the province of P.E.I. and the municipality of Charlottetown.
Murphy said the funding, which will pump almost $670,000 into Murphy’s Community Centre, will greatly improve the quality and the accessibility of the facility. The community centre must come up with one-third of the cost while the federal government and the province will split the remaining two-thirds.
Murphy Community Centre, before the change in ownership
Two years ago, Murphy bought what was then known as the Basilica Rec Centre in hopes of breathing new life into the aging facility that was built in 1962. Murphy, who owns several pharmacies in P.E.I., is chair of the board of directors for Murphy’s Community Centre. He said usage has increased noticeably since he took over the facility with bowling, basketball, Pilates, fitness classes, dances, bingo, catering, daycare and an after-school program among the diverse activity in the Richmond Street building.
Murphy said the MRIF funding would allow for substantial upgrades to the centre, including renovations to the washrooms, installation of an elevator and modifications to the building’s entranceways.
“We’re trying to make it that the facility is accessible to every individual that wants to frequent it,’’ he said.
The majority of work should take place in the winter months with all renovations expected to be completed by the end of May.
Murphy said the community centre is moving towards becoming more financially self-sufficient but noted that he has needed to inject cash from his pharmacies into the money-losing facility for the past two years.
“My personal feeling is we’ve done well in this community, we’ve down well in this province,’’ he said of his successful pharmacies.
“I have the belief, and we have the belief, that we have to give back to our community and it’s not just about dispensing medication. There’s a lot more to life than that.’’
Murphy said he would ultimately like to open community centres in 12 to 14 other communities in P.E.I., focusing on areas where he has pharmacies, like Kensington, Tyne Valley, Wellington, Cornwall and Stratford.
“We’d like to see one or two of them going by this time next year. We have to find out what they are looking for in these communities . . . Hopefully, it would be an offshoot of what we are doing here (at Murphy’s Community Centre in Charlottetown).’’
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