Supervisors approve sharing agreement for grant administration

The Montgomery County Board of Supervisors has agreed to a cost sharing agreement with the Southwest Iowa Planning Council for grant management.
At a recent meeting, the supervisors heard comments from Stanton Community Development director Jenna Ramsey, who shared details of the $850,000 grant received from Destination Iowa.
“If you recall back in the fall of last year, we came with a proposal. Destination Iowa is to enhance trails. The City of Stanton is working on their whole trail loop around Stanton, and one of its other goals is to do a trail from Stanton out to Viking Lake State Park,” Ramsay explained. “We put together the proposal, and we had it reviewed, the feedback was that since the road from Stanton to Viking Lake is a county road, that the county be the co-applicant. You guys were generous enough to be the co-applicant on that.”
Ramsay said it was in spring of this year that the Stanton community got word that the city and county in co-partnership received the Destination Iowa grant.
“Since then, we have been working on the contract. I think I was here in June for that. Now we are working on the management of the grant and partnership in that,” commented Ramsay.
The cost of the management of the grant is $10,000. SWIPCO would serve as the grant manager. Ramsay was proposing a three-way split of the costs.
“The Stanton Community Foundation has agreed to pay a third of the costs. The City of Stanton has also agreed to a third of the costs, and we’re now asking the Montgomery County Supervisors to pay for a third of those costs, $3,333 in partnership on the grant,” stated Ramsay.
While seeking a partnership, Ramsay said if the county agreed to the cost, the full amount would not be needed immediately.
“I have talked with SWIPCO  and was informed it’s not $10,000 up front, it’s over the course of the project. They’ll send out invoices to the city of Stanton. We’re not asking for that third to be in this budget year, it can be in the next budget year. The project has to be completed by 2026,” said Ramsey.
Supervisor Randy Cooper asked if any plans had been made for the county road from Stanton to Viking Lake. Ramsay said details are being worked out.
“There have been some suggestions of different things. It’s a discussion that would need to include county engineer Karen Albert and whomever else would want to be on the committee moving forward of the best way to go about what we want to do,” advised Ramsay.
Mickey Anderson, a member of the Stanton Community Foundation, also commented during the meeting. Anderson felt pursuing a management contract was the best way to go with handling the grant.
“I think it’s good to have a third party like SWIPCO manage this. It’s a lot of work. I think Jenna could probably do it, but this is a big deal. It’s just good to have someone manage it that has done this day in and day out. It’s also federal dollars, which messes things up even more,” Anderson said.
Supervisor Donna Robinson agreed, saying the county paid a membership to SWIPCO and it was a good idea to utilize their services.
The supervisors agreed to the cost sharing request as presented.