About $1.2 million was given away in grants Tuesday night by Grow Greene County Gaming Corporation.
The non-profit gaming license holder for Wild Rose Casino in Jefferson received over $2 million in requests. GGCGC receives five-percent of the adjusted gross gaming revenue of the casino. Of that total, 4.1-percent goes to projects in Greene County, while 0.9-percent is shared equally among the six contiguous counties. The contiguous counties each received $41,803, while the municipalities were allocated funds based on population, along with the school districts.
The highlight of the night was the competitive grants. Five projects were given $524,889. The City of Rippey received the most grant money of $80,000 to convert the gymnasium into a city maintenance shed and fire department. Next with Jefferson Matters: Main Street’s Tower View Team which got $52,425 for their Arch Alley project on the north alleway of the downtown square. The City of Scranton received $47,264 for improvements to the Memorial Park Shelter House. Jefferson Parks and Recreation will use $45,900 in grant funds to replace the gym floor of the Greene County Community Center. Finally, the City of Paton received $39,300 to pave a walking trail by the John Deere plant.
GGCGC President Norm Fandel said the hardest part for him and the eight-member board is the deliberation process they went through for all of the applications.
“We spend a good afternoon and part of the evening going through that. We let it rest for a couple of days. We come back and we review what we’ve done to make sure that we all feel the same way, so we didn’t make kind of a gut-wrenching moment or whatever. To say, ‘You can’t or you can,’ is sad, but I mean you have to make that decision. We just hope that the ones that didn’t get elected this year certainly come back for next year because we’ll have more money to hand out.”
For a full list of the recipients and the amounts that were given, click the link below.