Volusia County ECHO committee finds four projects eligible, approves budget change for African American Museum of the Arts

The Volusia County ECHO Grant & Eligibility Committee voted to declare four projects eligible to move forward for scoring and to the county council where applicable, and approved a budget amendment for the African American Museum of the Arts during a meeting held by the committee (meeting date shown in minutes as January 15). The committee scheduled scoring of the eligible applications for its next meeting on Feb. 13.

The eligible projects are: Little Theater of New Smyrna Beach (production improvements), the Hub on Canal (arts and cultural education center expansion), Conservation Florida’s D Ranch Preserve and Nature Center (restoration and conversion of an existing building into a nature center), and the City of DeBary’s Bill Keller Park pickleball courts and related park improvements. Committee members also approved a budget change request from the African American Museum of the Arts (AAMA) that raises the project’s total budget and restructures line items while leaving the museum’s ECHO funding request unchanged.

The committee’s eligibility votes were recorded by roll call during the meeting. Each of the four applications was declared eligible and advanced to the next steps: scoring at the Feb. 13 meeting and, where noted, onward to the Volusia County Council for final action.

Little Theater of New Smyrna Beach requested $57,500 from ECHO with a total match reported at $63,000. The application described installing a 32-foot-wide by 11-foot cyclorama LED screen as a flexible backdrop for performances and transparent LED panels on…