Power has given almost $50,000 to community projects in the Otago region during its latest round of CommunityCare Fund grants.
The largest grant, $20,000, went to the Roxburgh and Districts Community Plan Trust to go towards the new public toilets at Roxburgh.
The six self-cleaning Exeloo toilets, including two toilets for the disabled, cost $420,000 and were officially opened in September. They were funded by the Central Otago District Council but a trust sub-group is raising $140,000 to do up the exterior with features such as a living wall, which is a wall planted with native tussocks; a covered walkway and a work by Roxburgh metal sculptor Bill Clarke.
"It's a unique space and a great opportunity for us to make a statement about ourselves as a community," trust sub-group member Brigitte Paterson said.
She said the group had now raised a third of the money and was applying to other organisations such as the Central Lakes Trust.
The second largest grant, $16,519, went to the Waitaki Valley Preschool in Kurow for a building refurbishment.
Manager Bev Wilson said the preschool had "relocated from a little old building in the village" to an unused classroom on the site of Waitaki Valley School and the money was to fit it out.
She said this enabled the preschool to increase its roll from 22 to 30 children and they no longer had a waiting list.
They also received $30,000 from the Meridian Energy Waitaki Community Fund.
Maniototo Curling International Inc received $8000 for the development of the Naseby disc golf club. Disc golf involves players throwing a frisbee-like disc into a basket. It is scored like golf.
Maniototo's community radio station Burn received $5000 for a second transmitter. Station manager Quentin McIntosh said they needed a transmitter on site so they could broadcast Civil Defence messages.
The CommunityCare Fund was set up in 2007 to assist communities affected by Transpower's projects.
In the latest funding round, the CommunityCare Fund assisted 27 community organisations, with a total of $439,983.
