Cloud County receives Wind Farm grant requests from museum and local organizations

Representatives of the National Orphan Train Museum told the Cloud County Board of Commissioners on March 3 that the museum has secured a $90,000 Heritage Trust Fund grant for depot preservation and is asking the county for $9,000 in Wind Farm funds to install an irrigation system, reseed the museum courtyard with Kansas premium fescue, and landscape around three statues.

Wonda Brunkow, Sue Sutton and Joan Fraser, representatives of the National Orphan Train, presented the $9,000 Wind Farm request for a project totaling $9,977. The board received the request; no formal award was recorded in the minutes during the meeting.

The board also received a Wind Farm request from the Clyde Senior Citizens Center asking for $5,000 toward a $12,125 reroof and gutter replacement project, and a request from Concordia Wesleyan Church for $625 toward a $6,875 community Easter egg event (the church requested funding for half the cost of inflatables). The county clerk noted the Wind Farm application deadline is March 30.

The requests will proceed through the Wind Farm review process and any awards would be subject to the county's established Wind Farm grant criteria and funding availability; the minutes do not record decisions or disbursements at this meeting.

Clarifying details: the National Orphan Train representatives said the museum also received a $90,000 Heritage Trust Fund grant for depot preservation; the museum project would use county Wind Farm support to fund irrigation and landscape work. Other organizations submitted requests of varying sizes; the clerk announced the application deadline.