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MENTONE – Mentone Town Council approved Wednesday for Kosciusko County Community Coordinator Amy Roe to reach out to different organizations for grants for phase 2 of the Mentzer Park upgrade.
Roe said she was before the council to follow-up with what she presented to the council in December. During December’s meeting, the council approved a timeline for phase 2 of the Mentzer Park upgrade. She also talked about possibly using the Community Amenities Program (CAP) grant for the project.
Roe said Wednesday she was hoping to speak to the Dekko Foundation on behalf of Mentone. She has talked to Dekko about all the CAP projects and Dekko is interested in Mentone’s park upgrade project. She also noted the Kosciusko County Community Foundation was also interested in possibly providing grant money for the project. The grants would be between $25,000 to $30,000 each.
Roe said the grants would fill in the gaps for some of the specific project needs for the upgrade, “so probably what we would do is apply (for the grants) for specific parts of the project associated with whatever they were willing to fund.”
Another grant opportunity she brought up was through AWS Foundation.
“So they do have a smaller grant that I was made aware of at the Community Foundation for K21 that they could add a piece of equipment to the park that would be helpful for people who have a developmental disability,” Roe said. She thought the grant was around $10,000, possibly up to $25,000. Roe said the equipment would have to be looked at to see if it fits in the park and if there’s a location it could be added into.
She said the reason why these specific grants are being looked at now is because when a Patronicity grant is looked at later on in the process, Patronicity likes to know who the other possible funders for the project are.
In other business, the council:
• Heard from Tim Carter, maintenance supervisor at Cargill, that Cargill has decided to go back to receiving supply shipments through trains starting somewhere between the end of March and May 1. Due to the change, trains may possibly tie up the railroad crossing at times.
• Heard that on Jan. 20 from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., KCCF is hosting an educational meeting at the Community Foundation about Senate Bill 1 and how it impacts cities and towns. Yaprak said she planned on attending the meeting.
• Heard the cannon at the cemetery needs work.
Utilities Superintendent Josh Shepherd said every couple years, the military has to certify the cannon and they didn’t like the condition it was in. A deadline of Oct. 1 was set from the military to get the cannon repaired.
Shepherd voiced safety concerns with the cannon.
It will be looked into to see if someone could do repairs.
• Approved for Yaprak to join Aim for 2026, paying $1,435 for the year.
• Approved bidding out the Community Crossings Match Grant project. Bids will be opened Jan. 26 at 6 p.m.
• Approved retaining Austin Rovenstine as town attorney for another year.
• Approved for Jill Gross to serve as council president for 2026.
