Grant Applications OK’d By BOW For Fire, Police And Parks
Grant Applications OK’d By BOW For Fire, Police And Parks
Posted
David Slone-dslone@timesuniononline.com
Grant Applications OK’d By BOW For Fire, Police And ParksNot everything the city of Warsaw departments do or have is paid for by tax dollars. A portion of the funding comes from grants from foundations and other organizations.
On Friday, the Warsaw-Wayne Fire Territory, Warsaw Police Department and Warsaw Parks and Recreation Department requested permission from the Board of Public Works and Safety to apply for grants, which the Board approved.
Chris Fancil, WWFT EMS chief, requested permission to apply for a grant of under $20,000 through the Kosciusko County Community Foundation to start a website and mobile app for resources. The grant would cover the technical aspect of website creation, QR code direction, data input and translation.
“One of the things that the CARES (Community Assistance, Resources and Emergency Services) program has figured out is that there is a lot of lists of resources out there. None of them are good lists, they’re all incomplete. And we have multiple groups kind of reinventing the wheel every time they try to put together a list of resources,” Fancil said. “One of the big things we’ve done with the CARES program is we go out, visit with these people who are having mental issues or safety issues and we put them in touch with resources, so we’re already gathering that information anyway.”
In his work with Live Well Kosciusko at the Foundation, Fancil said they’ve got real excited about trying to map the county for resources using interns and other help.
“What we want to do is put together a complete list of resources that is accessible through a scannable QR code and then have its own website as well,” Fancil said. “We have the personnel that would be able to do that. As far as keep it up to date, we want to work with one of the local companies that’s already worked with Fellowship Missions to put together somewhat of a list, but we want to clean it up, make it a lot better, make it a lot more universally accessible. We want to put it on the website so people can go right there and look things up.”
First responders will be able to use it to look up emergency housing, emergency food, emergency mental health assistance or “whatever it may be,” Fancil stated and it will all be in one place.
It also will be shared with the schools and whoever else may need it.
Fancil said the Community Foundation was excited about partnering with them to try to get this done.
Mayor Joe Thallemer said, “So this is a really critical piece of the CARES program. You all understand that the CARES program is designed to handle emergent mental health crises, and our role is to be that first responder-type, if you will, for that type of incident. But, that list of resources is critical for us to try and help these individuals with counseling, with care, with community resources that will hopefully prevent and assist that these don’t reoccur. But our role is to kind of be the ones that are going to take all these resources and make them available. We’re not going to provide them, we’re not going to be the resource, we’re going to provide the community resources that already exist.”
He said keeping up with the current status of the not-for-profit service providers is a big job and having them all in one easy-to-handle digital resource will be a big benefit.
“I’m really excited about this,” Thallemer said.
Board member Jeff Grose thanked Fancil for his efforts and made a motion to approve the grant application, which was approved.
Bryan Sherwin, WPD deputy chief, presented three grant application requests on behalf of the Warsaw Dive Team for dive rescue equipment.
The first was for $10,000 from the Dr. Dane and Mary Louise Miller Foundation for “specific” equipment, Sherwin said.
Officer Ryan Coble said, “So, with the total grant, we’re looking at about two-thirds of that requested grant to outfit the Warsaw Police Department Dive members with new gear. That’s about what it’s going to cost. The other third of that is going to be for equipment, electronic equipment, lift bags, stuff like that. It’s going to be used by the entire Warsaw Dive Team for not only training but also call-ins.”
The second application was to K21 Health Foundation for $51,579, also for rescue dive equipment. Sherwin said it’ll be for the dive team but it’ll be different equipment.
“The K21 (grant application) is pretty much all for the outfitting of the Warsaw divers, with the dry suits, the BCDs, the integrated weight systems, that type of stuff. It’s all going to be through K21,” Coble said.
The final grant the WPD sought permission to apply for was for $15,000 through the Kosciusko County Community Foundation for dive equipment.
The Board approved all three grant applications.
From the Parks Department, Recreation Director Stephanie Schaefer requested to apply for a $7,000 grant with the Kosciusko County Community Foundation to support the Summer Concert Series. Last year, she applied for $5,000 and received the full grant amount. With the cost of everything going up, Schaefer said she and Parks Superintendent Larry Plummer thought $7,000 would be more appropriate this year.
She also sought permission to apply for a $2,000 grant from Kosciusko REMC Operation Round Up to support the Family Carnival, which will be July 28, 2023. Last year, she said she applied for $1,500 and received all of those funds, too.
The Board approved both of Schaefer’s grant application requests.
Thallemer said, “I always appreciate our partners at the Foundation and REMC for their support.”
