The McGraw High School Marching Band performing in this year’s Dairy Parade. The marching band was one of 13 nonprofit organizations to receive up to a $5,000 grant from the Town of Cortlandville’s ARP allocation. (Photo Source: Kevin L. Smith of The Cortland Voice).
Thirteen Cortland County nonprofit organizations were awarded up to $5,000 in federal funds from Cortlandville’s American Rescue Plan (ARP) allocation earlier this week.
Cortlandville town board members presented the grants to 13 nonprofit organizations at Wednesday’s town board meeting to the tune of $60,000 in total. The money will be taken out of the town’s $890,000 ARP fund allocation.
The proposal was laid out in late April when the town started seeking grant applications from nonprofit organizations, setting aside $50,000 in ARP funds to award to the organizations. Each grant would consist of no more than $5,000 and applications had a deadline of May 16. That number later changed to $60,000.
Town supervisor Tom Williams said the town received 17 applications in total.
“When the ARP money was designated to us, we talked at length about how we should distribute this,” he said. “One of the strong feelings was that we should support nonprofits in the area that unfortunately work on a smaller budget than other organizations.”
A couple of the applicants did not meet the requirements, Williams said.
“A couple of them were outside of Cortlandville,” he added. “We tried to gauge how organizations impact folks in Cortlandville through services or a lot of different things. Some applicants just didn’t do that as far as the town board was concerned.”
Below is a list of the organizations receiving funding, as well as the project the money will be used for.
- Disabled Americans Veterans Post 153 – $5,000
– Planning to utilize funds for parking lot repairs
- Catholic Charities of Cortland County – $5,000
– Offering a summer lunch program for Cortland County
- Cortland County Community Action Program (CAPCO) – $5,000
– Offering an adult education program for ages 16-76
- Cortland County Historical Society – $5,000
– Digitizing historic audio and video cassettes
- Lime Hollow Nature Center – $5,000
– Converting a 1960s barn into a classroom and workshop
- The Chapel – $5,000
– Offering a back-to-school giveaway program
- Access to Independence of Cortland County, Inc. – $5,000
– Offering a summer employment series of education for the disabled
- Lamont Free Memorial Library – $3,000
– Offering a weekly program designed for homeschool families
- 4-H Camp Owahta – Cooperative Extension of Cortland County – $5,000
– Performing maintenance and repairs to cabins
- Josie’s Journey – Canine Comfort Business, Lending A Caring Paw – $2,000
– Utilizing funds to cover software, marketing materials and supplies for comfort sessions
- Central New York Living History Center – $5,000
– A carport project planned to refresh, enclose and secure the space
- McGraw School Marching Band – $5,000
– Planning on purchasing marching band equipment and uniform
- Seven Valleys Health Coalition – $5,000
– Utilizing funding for media marketing materials to promote Cortland Harvest
