Etna Green Town Council discussed possibilities of what to do with a K21 Foundation grant for the town Tuesday.
The pledge of $200,000 was made to each incorporated town, other than Warsaw and Winona Lake, by K21 in 2020. The grant is specifically for health and wellness for the town. K21 will leave it up to the individual town councils to come up with a plan on their own for the grant or invite the community to present ideas.
In order to get the full amount of the grant, Councilman Jason Hanes said K21 needs to know what else the town is going to spend the money on.
The discussion came as Hanes said he’d like to use some of the money for a generator at the water plant.
The generator at the water plant would be to make sure the plant always has power.
Council member Susan Klinefelter said she doesn’t think the grant money should go toward the generator. She said she thought it should go toward a project that goes more directly to the town where the residents can see the benefit, not to just town equipment.
Hanes said the K21 Foundation was already fine with the town using the grant money for the generator. Klinefelter said she felt the Council needed to find a different source of money for the generator.
Hanes also said the Council needs to sit down and figure out where they want to focus the grant money on.
Klinefelter said she’d like to get the Lions Club involved. Hanes said he would, too. He said one of the things about the grant was that if the town wanted to give some money to different organizations to do something with in regards to health and safety, the K21 Foundation would not be against that.
Hanes also said there are other organizations in town he’d like to help, like the football league.
Klinefelter said she doesn’t want to leave the community out with a decision about the K21 grant.
Hanes said the Council will have to talk more about the issue. No decision was made Tuesday.
Clerk-Treasurer Patti Cook said the Lions Club has been on her in regards to the grant because the Club wants to see a walk. Klinefelter said she’d also like to see a walk. Hanes said a walk could be expensive and needs a study.
In other business, Hanes said he is not ready to do anything yet regarding where people can put trash cans.
There is some spacing issues with Republic and their requirements the Council is going to have to take a look at, Hanes said. He said Republic is requiring 3 feet between each trash can.
It was agreed the Council didn’t want a corral in front of people’s houses.
Hanes said the Council might have to look into saying all cans need to taken off the road at night.
“It’s nice to do, but getting 100% compliance, we’re going to have a hard time with that,” Council President Keith Claassen said.
Hanes said it would at least give the Council something to work with in the case there are issues with residents.
“Right now, we don’t have anything written out,” Hanes said. He also said he’d also like to pass the ideas by town attorney Jay Rigdon, who was not present at the meeting, as it might take a resolution to take care of.
The Council also approved its 2021 officers. Claassen will remain president and Hanes will remain vice president.
