RIVERSIDE
Smiles abounded Wednesday night at the Riverside Casino’s ballroom, where representatives of area cities and nonprofits gathered for the Washington County Riverboat Foundation’s …
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RIVERSIDE
Smiles abounded Wednesday night at the Riverside Casino’s ballroom, where representatives of area cities and nonprofits gathered for the Washington County Riverboat Foundation’s (WCRF) annual awards celebration. Fall grant awards were announced, totaling $1,430,053 in funding for nine projects, $1 million of which went to the Hoover Presidential Foundation for a new gallery, “War on a Thousand Fronts,” at the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum in West Branch, which will undergo a total renovation in 2025-26.
“The generous gift from the Washington County Riverboat Foundation is significant in making the vision behind the renovated Herbert Hoover Library and Museum a reality, which will impact both this region and those visiting from across the country and around the world,” Hoover Presidential Foundation President and CEO Mundi McCarty said in a statement following the awards.
The Library and Museum will close for roughly a year starting in early 2025 for the $20.3 million renovation; upon reopening, they expect a 45% increase in visitors – about 26,000 to 38,000 a year – which is projected to bring $4.3 million to local hotels, restaurants, and commercial establishments.
A bit closer to home, the Holy Family Parish, which includes three churches – St. Mary’s in Riverside, Holy Trinity in Richmond, and St. Joseph’s in Wellman – was awarded $121,000 for stained glass windows and roof repair projects; the City of Kalona was awarded $50,000 for a job trailer for student-built projects, and the Washington County Extension was awarded $10,807 for their “Tech-boosted 4-H: Elevating Events” project.
Just 16% of the projects seeking funding were awarded grants in the WCRF’s fall grant cycle.
Grant awards celebrated at the Dec. 4 event included those announced in Spring 2024, as well as an “emergency” grant awarded between grant cycles.
While award recipients posed for photos with their oversized checks, The News caught up with a few of them.
Job Trailer
Ryan Schlabaugh, Kalona’s city administrator, was happy to talk about the new job trailer the city will purchase with grant funds for upcoming student-built projects, similar to the houses rehabbed and built in the summers of 2022 and 2023.
“We’ve been very fortunate to have Tim Rouse from Durant who brought over their job trailer when we did projects,” he said. “As we expand on [the program] and do more throughout the year, we felt it important that we had proper tools, training devices, storage and everything locally that we would be able to move around.”
Although Schlabaugh isn’t sure what size trailer the city will end up with – likely in the 16- to 24-foot range – they hope to purchase it locally in Frytown, outfit it with tools and equipment over the winter, and have it ready for building in spring 2025.
Barn Relocation
The Kalona Historical Society received a $300,000 “emergency” grant in August, which will be used to relocate a historic barn from a Washington County farm to the Kalona Historical Village, where it will be restored. The Village’s managing director, Nancy Roth, caught us up on where that project currently stands.
“We just heard Monday that they’re going to pour the footings for it on Friday [Dec. 6], so hopefully that will happen,” Roth said.
It takes time for utility companies to arrange for lines to be taken down while the barn travels miles across the county, and so far no date for barn-moving has been set, but “hopefully by the end of January we’ll at least have it on site,” Roth said.
“We’re just excited to get it, get it moved onto the property, and then come spring, the initial goal will be to get a roof on it,” she added.
Library Projects
The Kalona Public Library Foundation received a spring grant for $16,245 to be used for indoor and outdoor library projects. Library director Olivia Kahler told us more about what those entail.
“We got a few Stay Sharp kits,” she said. “They came from the Penworthy library company, and we are going to share them with the Parkinson’s [support] group that was meeting at the library once a month, as well as with Pleasantview. They just help with memory, fine motor skills, [and] cognition. We ordered six kits, which we’re really excited to use.”
The library also purchased Kindles and iPads for “patrons to kind of train on,” Kahler said; they can test out the devices, compare them, and learn how to use them with the help of library staff before they purchase their own. A Kindle Paperwhite can be checked out of the library, perhaps before a vacation, because “it’s just easier to pack a Kindle than six books if you’re headed to the beach.”
In the kids’ section, the library acquired “a very generous amount” of non-fiction books, because “a lot of our history was historical,” Kahler jokes, referring to their out-of-date collection.
In terms of outdoor projects, the library is adding to their “Nature’s Gate” outdoor area some nature-inspired pieces, such as a tree trunk-like play tunnel and tree stump-like table and chairs.
Kahler said the technology has already arrived at the Kalona Library, as has the playscape equipment, which the Mid-Prairie High School shop class plans to install in April 2025.
WCRF Longevity
At the conclusion of the awards presentation, WCRF board president Stephanie Sexton reminded those in attendance of the threat a proposed casino in Cedar Rapids poses to the Riverside Casino’s revenue, and thus future grant funding. She suggested folks sign an online petition at IowansForCommonSense.com to support a moratorium on new casinos in Iowa.
2024 Fall Grant Recipients
The complete list of fall grant recipients announced Dec. 4 is as follows: Hoover Presidential Foundation, The War on 1,000 Fronts Gallery, $1,000,000; Holy Family Parish, Stained Glass Windows and Roof Repair, $121,000; WACO Community Schools, Roots and Reasons Greenhouse, $115,000; Washington Music Boosters, Elevating Washington Music, $54,209; Friends of Lake Darling State Park, Lake Darling Lodge solar system, $50,000; City of Kalona, Student Built Job Trailer Project, $50,000; Kiwanis Club of Sigourney, Iowa, Kiwanis Pavilion Project, $25,000; Washington County Extension, Tech-Boosted 4-H: Elevating Events, $10,807; Columbus Youth Sports, storage shed, $4,037.