Lake County awards ARPA grants to eight local non-profit organizations

The Lake County Commission has approved the county’s American Rescue Plan Act (or ARPA) grant awards for eight local non-profit organizations.  The county started accepting applications for the grants last fall and the commission received a review committee’s recommendations for awards earlier this month.  On Tuesday, commissioners approved the awarding of close to 808-thousand dollars in grants.  The eight non-profits who were approved for ARPA grants were the Domestic Violence Network, Making Oldham-Ramona Excellent (or the MORE group), Interlakes Community Action Partnership (ICAP), Lake County Historical Society (Lake County Museum), Bethel Lutheran Home, the Madison United Methodist Church’s The Gathering Meal, the Lake County Food Pantry, and the Lake Area Improvement Corporation.  The amount of the grants ranged from up to ten-thousand dollars for the MORE group to close to 252-thousand dollars for Bethel Lutheran Home.  

Lake County has received a total of more than two-point-four-eight-million dollars in ARPA money, which is intended to combat the COVID-19 pandemic, including public health and economic impacts.  

The county also accepted applications for the grants from county departments.  Commission Administrative Officer Shelli Gust has said that those will be reviewed and brought to the commission for its consideration at a future meeting.

Before approving the grant awards for the non-profit organizations Tuesday, commissioners also approved a conflict of interest policy for the distribution of the ARPA State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds.  

Lake County non-profit ARPA grant recipients:

Domestic Violence Network – $15,000

Making Oldham Ramona Excellent (MORE) – $10,000

Madison United Methodist Church – Gathering Meal – $16,100

Interlakes Community Action Partnership (ICAP) – $66,500

Bethel Lutheran Home – $251,912

Lake County Food Pantry – $149,638

Lake County Historical Society (Lake County Museum) – $98,670

Lake Area Improvement Corporation (LAIC) – $200,000