August 26th 2009
Members of the Wellman Area Foundation have been working diligently for several years to raise the funds needed to build and furnish the Parkside Activities Center. To date the W.A.F. has raised approximately $5.2 million, which the architects estimated would be sufficient to build the facility when fundraising began. Unfortunately, when the bids were opened the lowest acceptable bid resulted in an overall facility cost of approximately $6,000,000, or about $800,000 higher than the funds that were raised at that time. Because of the great success of the fundraising efforts at that time the leadership felt confident that they could raise the remainder of the funds by the time the facility was built. Due to the recent sharp downturn in the economy, fundraising efforts have became much more difficult and it is apparent that a bridge loan will be needed to complete the facility.
At this time there is a fantastic grant and loan opportunity available through the USDA Rural Development that will cover the final costs of construction and furnishing the facility. The USDA has awarded the City of Wellman with a $400,000 grant for the facility and will secure a $399,000 low interest loan for the remainder of the project (the loan amounts to approximately 7% of the overall cost of the project). This loan must be taken out by the City and used completely prior to any of the USDA grant monies being available. This loan would also count against the City’s constitutional debt limit. The W.A.F. has agreed to continue fundraising in the community and exploring further grant opportunities to fully pay off this loan as soon as possible. This loan is essential to giving the W.A.F. the time it needs to complete its fundraising and assures that the construction will be completed and the facility can be opened. The obvious concern is that citizens were told that no further City funds would be used on this project. If the fundraising is not completed by the time the first payment is due the City will have local option sales tax money and/or riverboat foundation money available to cover the payment on the loan without using property taxes for this. It is important to note that the City of Wellman will have contributed just $1,025,000, or 16% of the total cost of the project, and received a $6,000,000 facility in return!
The USDA grant that we are receiving is a very competitive grant process and the fact that we were awarded such a large sum indicates how important the federal government feels this project is for our community. This grant will bring the total to over $3.6 million (60% of the overall cost) in federal, state, and private foundation grants received for this project!
For further information regarding this story, contact Allen Leichty, Tom Buckwalter, Marty Van Roekel, Bob Freeman, Pat Freeman, Susan McClellen, Kim Stout, or Kris Kaalberg.
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