Winamac Park Board Must Explore Different Grant Options for Pool Project

Rendering of rebuilt Winamac pool.

Back in June, the Winamac Park Board submitted an application for $200,000 in match money from the DNR’s federal Land and Waterways Conservation Fund grant. During their meeting last night, the board discussed exploring other funding options for the community pool project because the LWCF grant was not received.

Park Board President Courtney Poor said that the day before the deadline, their application was the only one submitted so their hopes were high. However, several more applications dealing with wider-scope projects and land acquisition requests were turned in on time and over-rode their application.

Though the DNR suggested applying again next year, the board felt that time is a factor and they will be researching other grant options to cover the pool project which is going to cost approximately $500,000 to $600,000. So far a fund through the Community Foundation of Pulaski has $143,000 to put towards the project and $150,000 has been pledged by the Town of Winamac. That leaves about half of the money that still needs to be acquired.

As discouraging as not receiving this grant may seem, President Poor assured the board that this would not interfere with getting the project done. He said that this is not a stop of anything it is just a fork in the road.

Board members presented the idea of potentially hiring a grant writer to help with the grants that require more extensive work. Some grant writers, such as the one currently working with the Town of Winamac, don’t charge if grants are not received. Board member and Town manager Brad Zellers said that he sent a letter to the Town’s grant writer and he will be researching alternative grant options.