Grand Junction Fire and Rescue awarded $150,000 for a new ambulance. Photo by Coltrane Carlson-Raccoon Valley Radio
The 11th Annual Grow Greene County Gaming Corporation Grant Award Ceremony took place Tuesday night at the Greene Room Events Center at Wild Rose Casino and Resort in Jefferson.
The non-profit gaming license holder of the casino, GGCGC gave out $2,250,000 to the contiguous counties, the municipalities within the county, the two school districts, as well as legacy grants for multi-year pledges, economic impact grants and the competitive grants. There were eight competitive grant recipients, with the largest going to the Grand Junction Fire and Rescue of $150,000 to replace a 25 year old ambulance.
Rescue Captain Mandy Krieger was appreciative for the funding and she talked about their project to get a new rig.
“So this greatly helps us getting a new one, since it takes about two years to get a new ambulance. So, this comes in handy. We hope to have it soon. When our community calls for help, this will make us, you know, guarantee that we’ll be there. We’ve got tools to provide, we can make it safe (and) fast transport.”
A total of $496,000 was awarded in competitive grants.
Outgoing GGCGC President Norm Fandel reflected on his time on the board and as its president for the past 11 years has been a memorable experience, as he has been a part of giving away over $19 million from the adjusted gross revenue of the casino.
“It’s been very rewarding. Just great people to work with, to be around, (and) got to know some wonderful people to be on the board with us. Great projects that have come forward to us and just watching the communities enlightening themselves to a ‘can do’ attitude, and knowing that the financial burden is no longer there. That there’s a project that they can go ahead, move forward with, that there’s funding coming from Grow Greene. It’s just fill out the application and see what happens.”
The full list of all of the grant recipients and what projects the competitive grants are going to be used on can be found by clicking the link below.