Council Bluffs attractions competing for Iowa funds

[eomaha]

Three regional projects vie for CAT funding

Officials promoting three southwest Iowa projects will have their first face-to-face meeting with the Community Attraction and Tourism program committee today in Des Moines.

Ronald Hopp, director of the Council Bluffs Parks and Recreation Department, said that the city has already applied for a $2 million grant through CAT to help pay for the cost of improving Bayliss Park.

Hopp, Council Bluffs Mayor Tom Hanafan and six members of the Bayliss Park citizens steering committee will answer questions from the CAT committee this morning regarding the application.

The CAT program - a progeny of the Vision Iowa program - provides financial incentives to communities for the construction of recreational, cultural, educational or entertainment facilities that enhance the quality of life in Iowa.

The program supports smaller projects and promotes Iowa tourism.

Funding for the CAT program is through an appropriation by the Iowa legislature. There is no minimum or maximum award amount.

Hopp said that the city's application already passed CAT's review, which means that it does meet the criteria necessary to attain funds. Today will be the first open committee meeting where funding will be considered.

"The committee could make recommendations for funding today or it may not," Hopp said. "We certainly hope that we get a recommendation one way or another, so we will know where we stand."

Planned enhancements to Bayliss Park include the addition of a new fountain, a new interactive water feature, a performing arts stage with audience area, new seating areas, landscaping improvements, enhancements to the major entrances and the addition of public art.

Cindy Thompson, administrative director for the Pottawattamie County Conservation Board, said the board is requesting $103,000 from CAT to help fund a project that will convert the existing Hitchcock Nature Center lodge into the Loess Hills Interpretive Center.

This project includes renovations and additions that will transform the Hitchcock Nature Center lodge from a meeting facility to an interpretive center. Planned improvements include construction of a 50-foot observation tower, development of outdoor classroom space and an entrance courtyard, development of an interpretive trail, new exhibit space, computer kiosks and more.

The total cost of the project is estimated at $529,955. The Iowa Department of Transportation approved a $146,000 grant to the project last November.

For Malvern, a $310,000 grant proposal for a Carnegie Library expansion project awaits final approval.

Bev Dashner, a library trustee who wrote the grant proposal, said she found out Tuesday the grant was favorably scored and could be awarded as early as today. At worse case, she hopes to know the status of the grant by the March 9 meeting.

The total cost of the expansion project, Dashner said, is approximately $808,000. The project has received grants along the way of $35,000 from the Iowa West Foundation, $60,000 from the Roy Jake Carver Trust located in Muscatine, and $2,000 from the Iowa Farm Bureau Federation, with additional monies coming from private donations and city and county funds.

In addition to refurbishing the existing library, the project will add an additional 5,300 square feet on the north side of the existing 1,200-square-foot library.

The addition will connect only to the upper level of the building, as the existing lower section belongs to the Mills County Extension Office.

Dashner said the expansion project will not include any type of lower-level expansion.

The project will also include moving a pioneer log cabin, located approximately 100 yards northeast of the existing library, to make room for the expansion.

The exact starting date of the project is still tentative, but Dashner said officials would like to see construction begin sometime within the next six months.

[icejammer]

The Bayliss Park project received a resounding "maybe" from the Community Attraction and Tourism program on Wednesday.

The city applied for a $2 million grant through CAT to help pay for the cost of improving Bayliss Park.

Ronald Hopp, director of the Council Bluffs Parks and Recreation Department, said that the brief meeting seemed to go well.

"They didn't give us a bucket of money, but didn't say no either," Hopp said.

Hopp said that the project had not been officially "scored" by the panel, because the panel was unclear how much money that the Pottawattamie County Board of Supervisors would be contributing to the project.

On Wednesday, Supervisor Delbert King said that the Board approved $25,000 to go toward the Bayliss Park project.

Hopp relayed that information to the CAT committee.

The committee asked several clarification questions, such as what the Iowa West Foundation's contribution would pay for and the public art component of the project.

"They had nothing but good things to say about Iowa West," Hopp said. "And one member of the panel said that the amount of public art in this project is one of the most significant that they have seen."

The art component in the design consists of a large sculpture in the fountain, several ground level sculptures, mosaic tile work on benches and a unique canopy on the proposed stage.

Hopp, Mayor Tom Hanafan and the six members of the Bayliss Park citizens steering committee who made the trip were in front of the panel for lessthan five minutes. A good sign according to Hopp.

"As an eternal optimist, I thought that it demonstrated that they had a good understanding of the project," he said. "Which is good."

The Bayliss Park project will go before the CAT panel again at the group's next meeting on March 9.

The story was the same for the Pottawattamie County Conservation Board. The board is requesting $103,000 from CAT to help fund a project that will convert the existing Hitchcock Nature Center lodge into the Loess Hills Interpretive Center.

Executive director Mark Shoemaker said that their grant had not been "scored," but that he was optimistic.

"It was a good experience," he said. "They have never given a grant to a Loess Hills project, and we are hopeful."

A $310,000 grant proposal for a library extension project in Malvern will require further review and more negotiations, said Bev Dashner, the library trustee who wrote the grant.

Dashner said she was informed the amount of the grant "was a bit high," and would probably need to meet with the negotiating committee within the next two weeks.

In addition to refurbishing the existing library, the $808,000 project will add an additional 5,300 square feet on the north side of the existing 1,200 square-foot library.

Dashner isn't surprised the grant proposal wasn't immediately approved. "It was anticipated, because normally the standard (for approving grants) is 25 percent of the projects, though they have given up to 50 percent before."

Hopefully, Dashner said, the negotiating committee will reconsider awarding the full amount, which is approximately 38 percent of the total project cost.

"We're hoping they see the need," she said. "We don't have an industrial base to draw off from in Malvern, so we're just hoping they see our need."

Currently, the project has received grants in the way of $35,000 from the Iowa West Foundation, $60,000 from the Roy J. Carver Trust, and $2,000 from the Iowa Farm Bureau Federation, with additional monies coming from private donations, and city and county funds.

If the full amount of the grant isn't approved, Dashner said they will have no choice to but hit the drawing board again and figure out more fund-raisers.

That, however, isn't the main problem. Both the Iowa West and the Carver grants are time-sensitive on when they must be used. "The risk is right now is we've already received two other grants," Dashner said, "and we need to come up with the money very soon or risk losing what we've already got."

Dashner said the Carver grant was received in the fall, and the Iowa West grant is already on a one-year extension. After June, another year-long extension would need to be submitted.

The state's CAT board approved investments in six projects at its monthly meeting Wednesday in West Des Moines.

The RIVERSedge, in Bettendorf, received a $4.1 million grant (awarded over two fiscal years); the Cedar Falls Aquatic Center received $100,000; Story City Community Recreation Center received a $200,000 grant; Community Betterment Project, in Le Mars, a $650,000 grant; the Nashua Welcome Center received a $150,000 grant; and the Climbing Wall, in Sioux City, received a $75,000 grant.

To date, the CAT program as invested approximately $59 million in 163 projects in all parts of Iowa. About $1.2 million remains in the program in fiscal year 2005.

Newly appointed Vision Iowa board chair Andrew Anderson presided over his first meeting and said he is proud of these awards because they represent communities of all sizes and in all parts of the state.

"These projects will play a vital role in improving the quality of life in Iowa," he said. "And they can help attract former Iowans back to the state."

[icejammer]

Looks like Bayliss Park is (maybe) moving forward.....

A special group of visitors will be touring Bayliss Park in a few days, and that could bode well for receiving more money to renovate the park, a city official said.

Staff and board members of the Vision Iowa program will tour the park, and its disabled fountain, on April 21, Parks Director Ron Hopp said.

"I welcome them to learn more about Bayliss Park and the community," he said after Tuesday's Parks Board meeting. "I think it's a positive thing that they want to learn more about the project. I'm positive that by educating them further, the award will be more in line with what we want."

Earlier this year, city officials applied for a $2 million grant through the Community Attraction and Tourism program that's overseen by Vision Iowa. The grant would help pay for a new fountain and other improvements in Bayliss Park.

City officials were scheduled to be in Des Moines today to negotiate with a Vision Iowa representative on that request.

"I don't think they ever gave a community the amount they asked for," Hopp said.

The negotiations were postponed for now because the representatives wanted to see for themselves what the project is all about, he said. That's usually better than awarding money based simply on reading information about a project, he said.

"I view it as a positive that may result in more money," Hopp told the Parks Board. "Other site visits typically have positive results."

After the visit, negotiations for a grant will resume in May, Hopp said.

Planned enhancements to Bayliss Park include the addition of a new fountain, a new interactive water feature, a performing arts stage with audience area, new seating areas, landscaping improvements, enhancements to the major entrances and the addition of public art.