Hometown Pride projects net $30K in grants

In its efforts to improve communities in a variety of ways, members of Jasper County’s Hometown Pride committees have been applying for a variety of grants.

Six of those grant-application efforts recently paid off when Prairie Meadows Casino announced its 2016 Community Betterment Grants. Prairie City, Baxter, Colfax, Lynnville, Monroe and Newton all received grant money, totaling $30,000.

Hometown Pride, a division of Keep Iowa Beautiful, has seven Jasper County committees in the second year of its five-year program. Each team, comprised of city and county officials, civic leaders, urban planners and everyday citizens, is led by community coach Jeff Davidson, who praised the hard work and grant-writing abilities of the team. Jasper County Hometown Pride is broken down into seven committees, each representing a different community.

“I was already impressed when I got here (in early 2015) with how much skill there is here,” Davidson said. “There are some really good (grant) writers here, especially on this team. We’re way ahead of where I thought we’d be.”

Prairie City landed the biggest grant among the Prairie Meadows awards to Hometown Pride communities in the county. The city will receive $10,000 to complete its funding to purchase a new ambulance.

Two of the communities will receive $5,000. Colfax will purchase picnic tables, including at least one handicapped-accessible table. Newton will use its grant to help with the cost of a boulder-climbing segment at Aurora Park and Monroe will use its $5,000 for fencing around its tennis courts at School Park.

Baxter and Lynnville each received $2,500 grants. Baxter will use its award to help with restoration costs for its historic train caboose, while a bell honoring the site of the former Lynnville school is the lone item on the list from the eastern half of the county.

Sully’s $9,500 bandstand grant proposal was the only one of the seven Hometown Pride community projects to not receive Prairie Meadows funding this year.

Newton, which is one of the largest cities in Iowa participating in Hometown Pride, has been a bit of a test of how the program could work in a larger town, Davidson said. The boulder park would be a unique attraction within central Iowa, he said.

“From January through the end of May, the team applied for 31 grants, and we’re going to keep it up,” Davidson said. “It’s about setting community priorities, sticking to them and finding the money.”

Prairie City Administrator Manny Toribio said he gives credit to the city’s fire department and volunteers for helping contribute to a solid proposal. When asked which individuals were the most instrumental, Toribio mentioned longtime Prairie City Fire employee Carl Van Der Kamp.

Toribio said straightening out the city’s EMS annual audit status and reducing its number of findings took priority over replacing its only ambulance, which is now more than 10 years old.

“We had to get more communication going, and so the ambulance got put on hold,” Toribio said. “There were a few findings with ties to equipment, but we weren’t specifically told we needed to get a newer ambulance to be compliant.”

Prairie City’s grant money must be used as part of ambulance purchase by May 5, 2017. Toribio anticipates a request for bids will be sent out within the next few months, once the city’s exact needs for an ambulance are determined.

“Costs range from around $80,000 to half a million dollars,” Toribio said. “Now that we have a timeline and the funding, we can assess our needs and move forward.”

Contact Jason W. Brooks at 641-792-3121 ext. 6532 or jbrooks@newtondailynews.com