Vernon County committee approves 2024 Community Development Grant awards and opens second application period

At its June 6 meeting, the Vernon County Economic Development Committee approved the recommended 2024 Community Development Grant awards and unanimously approved four extension requests for 2023 projects.

Amy Oliver, Community Development Director, reviewed completed 2023 grant projects and presented four extension requests she described as reasonable; Karen Dahl moved to approve those extension requests for the Town of Union, Town of Greenwood, the Village of De Soto and the Village of Coon Valley, Bruce Kilmer seconded and the motion passed unanimously.

Oliver also briefed the committee on the 2024 awards and thanked the application review committee (David Strudthoff, Nathaniel Slack, Larkin Breckel and Amanda Elliott) for their assistance. The committee approved the recommended 2024 awards by motion of Karen Dahl, seconded by David Strudthoff.

After awarding the 2024 funds, Oliver said $66,443 remained in the grant account and recommended opening a second application period to accept additional proposals. Nathaniel Slack moved to offer a second 2024 application period opening in August with applications due in October; Karen Dahl seconded and the motion passed unanimously.

Oliver also noted Senator Tammy Baldwin has recommended Vernon County’s FY2025 Congressional Spending grant application for a Mobile Command Center to the Senate Appropriations Committee for funding consideration; the recommendation was described as a referral for committee consideration rather than a guaranteed allocation.

The committee did not specify award amounts for each recipient in the meeting record; staff indicated remaining next steps would include administering the second application round if needed and reporting back to the committee.