Rock Rapids, Iowa — Lyon County Schools, Cities, and County government continue to win big with grants from the Lyon County Riverboat Foundation.
The foundation is the non-profit license holder for the Grand Falls Casino 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 half in a competitive grant process to non-profit projects.
The fourth quarter 2014 non-competitive grants are being given during basketball games in the county. The eastern Lyon County grants were given during a ceremony on Friday night, February 16th at George/Little Rock High School. The central and western Lyon county grants will be given during basketball games at Central Lyon and West Lyon schools this Friday night, January 23rd.
Lyon County public schools — Central Lyon, George/Little Rock, and West Lyon are each being granted a little over $46,000. That makes their total for 2014 about $176,000 per school. Since the Riverboat Foundation started giving grants in 2011, each school has received nearly $600,000.
Lyon County cities are given grants based on their population. They range from about $14,000 for Lyon County’s smallest incorporated community of Alvord to almost $17,000 for Rock Rapids this time around. That brings the total for 2014 to a low of almost $54,000 for Alvord to a high of over $64,000 for Rock Rapids. Since the grants started in 2011, the total ranges from over $183,000 for Alvord to nearly $220,000 for Rock Rapids.
Lyon County is being given just over $19,000 this time, bringing the 2014 total to over $74,000, and the grand total to-date to almost $254,000.
The total amount being given to government subdivisions in the fourth quarter is nearly $278,000 and in 2014, the total is over a million dollars.
The foundation says that what the government subdivisions do with the money is up to each one’s board or council.
The grand total given away to the government subdivisions by the foundation so far is over $3.5 million. Another $3.5 million has been given to non-profit projects in the competitive grant process. The latest competitive grants will be announced during a ceremony at the Grand Falls Casino and Resort on February 7th.
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