Rock Rapids, Iowa — Lyon County Schools, Cities, and County government have received another payment 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 the other half in a competitive grant process to non-profit projects.
Due to the COVID-19 concerns that surfaced in March of 2020, the foundation decided to hold onto earnings from the first quarter of 2020 until the casino reopened. The casino has reopened and the foundation awarded first-quarter non-competitive earnings this past week.
Lyon County public schools — Central Lyon, George/Little Rock, and West Lyon were each granted over $48,000. That brings up their total since the Riverboat Foundation started giving grants in 2011 to about $1.5 million per school.
Lyon County cities are given grants on factors that include their population. They ranged from over $14,000 for Lyon County’s smallest incorporated community of Alvord to over $17,000 for Rock Rapids this time around. Since the grants started in 2011, the total ranges from over $459,000 for Alvord to over $550,000 for Rock Rapids.
Lyon County was given over $20,400 this time, bringing the grand total to-date to over $576,000.
The grand total given away to the government subdivisions by the foundation so far is nearly $8.5 million. Another nearly $8.5 million has been given to non-profit projects in the competitive grant process.
Grand Falls Casino was closed for two and a half months due to the pandemic, so presumably revenue will be down for the second quarter.
| Entity | Q1 2020 | Since Inception |
| City of Alvord | 14,783.00 | 458,904.01 |
| City of Doon | 15,261.00 | 473,752.19 |
| City of George | 15,893.00 | 493,351.00 |
| City of Inwood | 15,559.00 | 482,985.79 |
| City of Larchwood | 15,623.00 | 485,010.00 |
| City of Lester | 14,906.00 | 462,760.35 |
| City of Little Rock | 15,114.00 | 469,151.26 |
| City of Rock Rapids | 17,737.00 | 550,594.10 |
| County of Lyon | 20,495.00 | 576,638.56 |
| Central Lyon CSD | 48,460.00 | 1,504,198.58 |
| George-Little Rock CSD | 48,460.00 | 1,504,198.58 |
| West Lyon CSD | 48,460.00 | 1,504,198.58 |
| TOTALS | 290,751.00 | 8,965,743.00 |
