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BURKET – Burket Town Council heard Thursday about a possible grant opportunity.
Amy Roe, Kosciusko County coordinator, told them about the Community Amenities Program (CAP).
CAP was established through the Orthopedic Industry Retention Initiative (OIRI) and managed by the K21 Health Foundation.
Roe said for this specific program, it is for every community in the county except Winona Lake and Warsaw.
Roe said the grant through CAP is up to $500,000 and is a dollar-for-dollar match. Burket’s part of the match can come from private investment, local businesses, private foundations or capital campaigns.
The projects have to be amenities like parks, sports facilities, swimming pools, walking and biking trails, communal work spaces, so “it’s community amenities. It’s basically what they call quality of life and quality of place,” she said. She said some places are going to take town property and put a park there. Leesburg is looking at enhancing its sidewalk/trail system.
Council President Bill Rayburn asked if the grant could possibly fund a town building with a clerk’s office and possibly meeting space.
Roe said what they are able to do is put some potential projects into the grant system to see if they would be eligible for funding. If the idea is approved, that opens up the application process for the town to apply for grant funding for the project. She said if the idea is initially approved, the town is under no obligation to actually apply for the grant. The last applications will be accepted in mid-2027. The program is hoping to get letters of intent of everyone who interested in applying for the program by the end of this year.
“So if you end up saying, ‘Well, we couldn’t get the money’ or ‘We just decided it was too much work,’ or whatever, that does not obligate you to apply,” Roe said. She advised if the town was interested in a project to try to get pre-approved so the town can go to whatever funders the town has with that information.
Rayburn asked if the town could use other grants as their portion of the money. Roe said yes. Etna Green is using K21 Health Foundation and Kosciusko County Community Foundation grants, along with rainy day funds, for the project they are possibly looking at.
K21 said if there are projects associated with health and wellness, the foundation would welcome a conversation to do an additional match for the grant. OCRA also has a public facilities grant, but it is specifically for buildings like community centers. She believed it was up to $750,000 if the town was low to moderate income.
Rayburn said he thinks the town needs to have some skin in the game somewhere. Roe said some communities are putting some skin in the game by paying for engineering costs for the project.
Rayburn said the council talked about a town hall previously and it fell apart. He said there are some buildings and properties that “are due to be gone.” He thought it might be an idea to put the town hall on one of those properties. He also later asked Street Superintendent Brad Bibler if there was enough room for a small town hall behind the town garage. Bibler said he wasn’t sure.
Roe said there are things that are not eligible for the program, like private residences, public utilities and nonshared spaces. Rayburn asked if it would be considered a shared space if they allowed the community to use it.
Rayburn said there is some money in the budget they’ve collected for years and they’d like to put that to work.
Roe said she thinks the first step is determining the basic description of what the town wants to do.
