GC council rejects $20,000 BIG Grant request

Council members discuss need for overhaul of grant guidelines, parameters
GRUNDY CENTER – During Monday night’s meeting, the Grundy Center City Council picked up discussion on agenda item that was tabled at the last meeting: the decision to award or not to award a $20,000 BIG Grant to Dave Loftus for upgrades to two of the commercial storefronts he owns at 605 and 609 G Avenue.
After some discussion, the council voted unanimously not to award the grant as requested, citing the fact that they had already awarded Loftus $5,000 for the same project after he was chosen as the Main Street Iowa Challenge Grant winner.
Members of the council along with Mayor Al Kiewiet agreed that the BIG Grant program itself is in flux, and that the BIG Grant committee needs to look at setting new parameters for awarding the grants.
Council member Janetta Miller said she would like to wait to award any more grants until the council’s two newest members – Butch Kuester and Amanda Grineski – have a chance to attend a BIG committee meeting and to find out more about the grant program itself, and what it aims to do.
“I just feel that we’re not doing our due diligence by doing a vote [tonight],” Miller said. “We have two new council members who aren’t really familiar yet with the BIG Grant process. The grant is in flux right now, and we need to put different parameters on it.”
Originally, when the BIG Grant program was started, the goal was to improve infrastructure in town, and to work on repairing the historic facades in downtown Grundy Center.
Council member Chad Hamann said that since Grundy Center has become a Main Street Iowa community, and since the downtown MSGC district is now undertaking a $1 million façade renovation project, the parameters of the BIG grant have expanded to other internal projects like upgrading electric and plumbing at businesses.
“The BIG Grant has changed and matured, and we’re still working on it, but I would agree that it’s been a while since the BIG committee got together, and it might be time for us to meet and relook at [the structure of things],” he said.
For the full story, see this week's Grundy Register.