Larchwood, Iowa — Over eighty projects in the tri-state area shared nearly $167,000 in mini-grants from the Lyon County Riverboat Foundation on Monday evening.
Almost all of the recipients asked for and received the limit of $2000, according to Lyon County Riverboat Foundation officials. Many of the grants were for projects within Lyon County, but many grants were also given to out-of-county and out-of-state projects.
The grants were given to projects as far west as Crooks, South Dakota, as far north as Luverne, Minnesota, as far south as Sioux Center, and as far east as Ocheyedan.
It’s not known if there will be enough money to do this in the future, but this time, there was enough money available to fill every grant request that was received. That’s 84 grants in total.
Projects ranged from equipment for online computerization and a catalog of museum artifacts for the McCallum Museum of Osceola County to daycare supplies for the George Community Foundation, and from new exterior doors for the Sibley VFW post to replacement of bathroom floor and visit room window blinds at the Seasons Center’s new Family Visitation Center in Sioux Center.
The Sheldon Recreation Department got $2000 toward batting cages at the Sheldon Sports Complex.
The foundation is the non-profit license holder for the Grand Falls Casino and Golf Resort near Larchwood. State law mandates a certain percentage of the casino’s gaming take has to go back to the community. The agreement between the casino and the non-profit stipulates that for the first $20 million the casino collects in gambling winnings in a year, they will give the foundation 4.5 percent. When they get up to $20 million, the percentage goes up to 4.75 percent; and when they get up to $30 million, it goes to 5 percent.
The Lyon County Riverboat Foundation is set up to give half of the money in grants to county government subdivisions and schools, and the other half in a competitive grant process to non-profit projects.
