WHERE ARE WE NOW?!

Expat, feel free to start tossing tea into the harbor anytime. In the meantime, I think it's best that our community tries to get as much of their tax dollars back as they can because it's currently going elsewhere, while we sit around feeling sorry for ourselves.

The tax laws are what they are and because of the apathy, laziness, and refusal to read or participate (or even track the actions of government bureaucrats), citizens are stuck with the tax laws we have.

With that being said, the actual unfairness of the tax laws is that a portion of what each Indiana taxpayer pays to the state actually LEAVES Indiana and is sent to California. We are called a Donor state -- yeah -- that stinks.

So if we get past being mad or angry about "the system" and figure out how to get the money back that we have paid into the system so that we can benefit from OUR MONEY, the way to do that is to apply for grants. There are dozens of grants we can apply for (each municipality and county unit) to be used to enhance, support, rebuild, upgrade, and improve life for citizens.

There is absolutely NO EXCUSE OR REASON why any elected official is unaware of these grant possibilities. Certainly every opportunity for improving life in Greene County and its cities and towns should be taken advantage of without delay.

Imagine this: If each city or town (and the county itself) each received a $500,000 Community Focus Fund (CFF) grant or a Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) -- that's even more important because those monies are based from FEDERAL dollars that we paid to Washington. Washington then gives grants to the states to use for the betterment of cities and towns. In addition, the state has monies available. Greene County communities could literally bring $5 million dollars (plus have three grants open total for a total of $15,000,000 for a yearly grant cycle).

That would make a HUGE impact on Greene COunty.

Sometimes there is match money required, sometimes not. Planning Grants usually require no match money and once complete are quite useful in applying for additional grants because you earn points for every planning tool you have.

In the end, Chris is right. We need to be asking our officials why they aren't coming to the table with suggestions and plans to get money from Indy.

In Linton, for example, once the Council determined they would not support even applying for a CFF grant ($556,000)to restore the buildings at the Conservation Club, there should have already been another project on the backburner instead of now just sitting around doing nothing. Our money is not working for us and neither is our City Council.

The truly sad thing is that the Mayor/Council need to get it together (and work together) to get that money flowing into our community. To not do so is negligent and shows a complete lack of planning, vision, thought, and concern for the community.

IF the city council had voted to get the $500,000, Linton would have been eligible for nearly $4 million more from INDOT Trails grants to put lights and walkways throughout the city, along with numerous other grant opportunities for baseball fields, a $2 million indoor swimming pool (completely paid for) and other amenities that would have been a great benefit to us all.

Shame on the council. Shame on us all for not forcing a vote and demanding that they apply for the grants. Not only did they not act, they failed to even VOTE!

Can we all get on with making Linton (and our communities) better than we found it (them)?

Seriously?!

Minerfan, yes, each Community Development Block Grant is worth up to $500,000. Once the first shovel is taken, another can be applied for. There can be up to three open at a time, meaning three projects can be occurring at the same time. The local match is 10%. The grant applications are scored on a point system. As Bloomfield recently found out, if you get 500 letters of support for a grant, you score very high. (They recently got one for downtown revitalization.)

Past uses of grant monies in Linton include the Roy Clark Community Building and the Glenburn Senior Center. I believe Jasonville received one for their water system. As mentioned, Bloomfield was recently awarded one for their downtown. The town of Dugger has probably been one of the biggest recipients over the past few years. So, these are all past examples of the monies.

Unfortunately, the new Linton Library did not apply for one, so the whole construction cost was put on the backs of local taxpayers. I'm not saying that building a new library wasn't the right thing to do, but I question how it was financed. I think the grant application should have at least been filled out and submitted.

About four months ago, a youth center was proposed, but ultimately a vote was never taken by the Linton City Council because there was not a second to the motion to approve the application. So, it died. It appeared to have all boiled down to bickering over the proposed location; however, the opponents of the location never did propose a better location as an alternative. Ultimately, nothing has happened… and some other community received the grant monies allotted, while we paid in taxes to support these funds, but watched another community benefit.

I agree, Minerfan, there may even be the chance to develop a few new jobs here, whether it's during the construction or on-going program that the project is intended for. To learn more about grants, you may check out the SIDC website, at: http://www.sidc.cc/commdev.html