Paddock weighs concentrated grant window, downtown lot improvements and RFP for Chapman Building

Board and staff members discussed how to accelerate downtown improvements and increase participation in the paddock’s grant programs. Raelyn (finance/administrative staff) and other board members proposed opening a time-limited grant window — for example a 90-day application period — to concentrate outreach, raise awareness and encourage higher-quality submissions for facade and downtown grants.

Raelyn summarized funding context: recent audited figures were cited as a baseline (audited beginning balance from 2023 and a reported beginning-of-year balance in 2024 of about $2.2 million), and annual revenue was described as roughly $1.1 million. Staff said fiscal-year-26 budget planning will begin with those baseline numbers and that the paddock currently has unspent cash that could be allocated to…