Good news and not-so-good news arrived last week for two local groups trying to get a major grant.
The Regional Opportunities Initiative will not be funding the Brown County Community Foundation’s attempt to develop more local child care options — at least, not right now.
“ROI will not be funding our project in round one, in part because our budget allocated too many dollars toward the planning stage of the project,” said Maddison Miller, CEO of the foundation. “We have been encouraged to make edits and reapply in the second round, which we intend to do.”
However, the Brown County Regional Sewer District’s application is still in the running for a grant from the same group.
The Regional Opportunities Initiative Ready Communities grant program is a Lilly Endowment-funded effort to improve life in an 11-county region which includes Brown County. Projects are supposed to “amplify the great things about your county and provide an opportunity for other people to join and enjoy those with you.”
Brown County has the opportunity to apply for three rounds of grant funding to implement projects, up to $250,000 each round.
The sewer board applied for $78,000 through ROI to study septic systems and surface water quality throughout Brown County. Sewer board member Clint Studabaker said that since Brown County is upstream of all 10 other counties in the region, he thought we stood a good chance of getting funding. He got a letter last week saying that this application is still on the “short list” for consideration.
“It says they’re very excited about our proposal and they think it has significant potential to positively impact the Indiana Uplands (11-county) region,” he told the sewer board last week.
The grant committee advised the board to increase its request to $108,000, Studabaker said. It also asked some additional questions, which they’ll answer. He hoped they’d know more about the status of the grant by the next regular sewer board meeting, which will be Tuesday, Aug. 13.
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