Diane Wise and Larry Pote spoke with the Greene County board of supervisors Monday about the effort to build a new community center in Grand Junction. The current building is dilapidated and unsafe; it is slated to be demolished next spring.
Wise told the supervisors the project steering committee has already submitted grant applications with assistance from Region XII Council of Governments, and she asked the supervisors to “come on board” with the project.
The proposed community center has a price tag of about $1 million. Pote said that if all the grants the committee has applied for were funded, the committee would be about three-fourths of the way to the total. That assumes the committee would meet Junction Hilltop Wind’s challenge grant at the $300,000 level. (Click here for the February post about the challenge grant.)
Region XII staff thinks the application for a Vision Iowa grant has a strong chance of funding, Pote said. There is also an application pending for grant funds from the USDA. Pote said he’s been told by USDA staff that the grant request is “very reasonable.” Pote expects to hear in September if that grant is funded.
Pote and Wise asked the supervisors to consider a $5,000 allocation to the project from Dreyfus funds, and that there be a multi-year commitment to make similar allocations in the next few years. The supervisors do not generally make multi-year commitments with Dreyfus funds, but Wise reminded them the board had done so for the Rippey Community Center project. County auditor Jane Heun noted that the committee has not yet filled out the application for Dreyfus funds and asked Wise to do so.
The supervisors made no commitment, but agreed to consider the request.
Pote declined after the meeting to give specific information about the pending grants. He said that the Grand Junction city council, of which he is a member, has agreed to bond for up to $200,000 for the project if the committee can raise the remaining $800,000. He said Grand Junction has no bonded indebtedness currently, and that the council is willing to take on that debt for the project.
