Nine representatives from the City of Carroll and the Carroll Athletic Association came before the Carroll County Board of Supervisors Monday to make a request for an increase in funding to support the Merchants Park Renovation Project. Chris Whitaker, the Local Assistance Director for the Region XII Council of Governments outlined their Dec. 9 meeting with the Vision Iowa Board. He said the one thing they saw as a detriment to an application for a $150,000 grant was that they believed the $2,500 pledged from Carroll County was not enough of a buy-in.
Whitaker said it would be best to spread the $10,000 over two years. All they would need is a letter from the board detailing their donation. This would be presented at the next Vision Iowa board meeting on Jan. 7. President of the Carroll Athletic Association, Barry Bruner said there has been donations from the city, over 85 individual gifts, 90 business gifts and donations from both schools in Carroll to bring them to $700,000 privately raised for this project, and this was important to Vision Iowa.
Whitaker explained to the supervisors that the $10,000 donation would be able to leverage $133,000 from Vision Iowa, 16.4 percent of the estimated total renovation costs. He also said time was of the essence, not only to secure an award before the money is allocated elsewhere, but also to put the project out for bids at the beginning of next year. Supervisor Mark Beardmore expressed concerns about making a commitment before they were positive of their revenue stream for 2016; but other supervisors argued that the $10,000 would not be an issue as it will be drawn from the Local Option Sales Tax fund. Both Dean Schettler and Gene Meiners supported the two year break out of funds, but Beardmore expressed more concerns.
Beardmore added he did not like setting a precedent for other local field renovation projects. Neil Bock added that he they had drawn the line with the $2,500 donation, and now they were moving it, but he would go along so they could leverage the larger amount of money. The Supervisors approved $10,000 over two years with a vote of four in favor and one against.
