Community Benefits from Recent DOLA Grants

Proposed Park Project

The Department of Local Affairs has sent letters of acceptance to the City of Lamar and to the Prowers County Board of Commissioners acknowledging that two funding requests have been approved.

The Lamar Shore Arts Center Pocket Park will receive $75,000 from state Energy and Mineral Impact Assistance funds. The letter to Mayor Roger Stagner stated that several criteria for approval were met including: relationship to community goals, level of local funding match, community support, management capacity and readiness to go. The Pocket Park is the open parking space located between the Shore Arts Center and Daylight Donut on South Main Street. Long used as a general parking spot, over the past years, the area has been considered as an ideal spot to hold various downtown oriented events and plans call for developing the area into small park-like attraction which can serve as just a simple area to visit and sit, or to act as a center for music events or other community gatherings. This is a 50/50 funding match with the City of Lamar.

Peeling Ceiling at Courtroom

Prowers County has received a grant award of $123,870 from the same funding source and based on similar criteria that have been achieved by the county. The funds will be used for the restoration of the Prowers County Courtroom ceiling. The grant is not for the full cost of repairs, but will be applied to that total. Portions of the third floor courtroom ceiling have been damaged from a buildup of moisture and the ceiling is flaking off in small sections. The problem that created the abundance of moisture has been repaired and the county has employed a firm to oversee the restoration process.
By Russ Baldwin