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Committee adopts 2025 community development grant guidelines; hears $400,000 flood-resilience award and housing-study plans
Summary
The Vernon County Economic Development Committee approved the 2025 Community Development Grant guidelines and heard that the county was awarded nearly $400,000 in Pre-Disaster Flood Resilience funding (25% county match); staff also reported 800 responses to a housing survey and previewed branding and business-retention work.
The Vernon County Economic Development Committee on Feb. 6 adopted new 2025 Community Development Grant guidelines and scoring changes intended to clarify reviewer scoring and emphasize community need and economic resiliency.
Amy Oliver, Community Development Director, presented the proposed guidelines, application, and a revised scoring matrix and said the changes are intended to make the review process clearer for grant reviewers. Bruce Kilmer moved to approve the 2025 guidelines, Karen Dahl seconded, and the committee approved the motion unanimously.
Oliver also reported the county had been awarded nearly $400,000 in a Pre-Disaster Flood Resilience grant and that the county must provide a 25% local match; she summarized the project and displayed a map of the proposed project area. The minutes record that the award amount was described as "nearly $400,000" and do not list a precise award figure or the dollar value of the required match.
On housing, Oliver said the housing task force met in late January and reported that the county received 800 responses to its housing survey. She invited Kristin Runge of UW–Madison Extension to present the survey results at the March meeting and staff noted that community engagement sessions will begin in March; Hannah Altimus of UW–Extension highlighted the Regional Housing Summit scheduled for May 6 in Hillsboro and a Business Workshop Series starting Feb. 27 in Coon Valley.
Economic Development Coordinator Larkin Breckel also shared results from a branding questionnaire included in the housing survey, describing generally positive feedback about living and visiting Vernon County and listing next steps with Elevate Media (visual assets) and UW–Madison Extension (messaging assets). A county leadership logo survey was described as the next step to gather feedback on logo preferences.
The minutes do not record specific dollar allocations from the county budget to satisfy the Pre-Disaster grant match, nor do they record implementation timelines for the grant or the housing study beyond planned presentations and engagement sessions.
