An agenda item on tonight’s (2/28/22) Janesville City Council Agenda seeks council approval for the city to apply for a 7.5 million dollar federal grant to fill an expected financing gap in the total construction cost of the proposed Woodman’s Community Center. The grant is available as a function of the 2021 American Rescue Plan Act grants for the tourism industry.

Similar grant funds were already used to fund the approximately 2 million dollar design phase of the project.

The new resolution on the agenda clearly states that there is not enough combined local financial and borrowing support to complete the project: “ WHEREAS, federal financial assistance is needed to move forward with the construction of the Woodman’s Community Center;”.

Should the grant be received, the city would be responsible to match 20-percent of the total, making the overall financial impact 9.375 million dollars toward the project.

A further portion of the resolution seeks to give the city manager complete control of the dollars without further council approval.

The public may participate in comments at tonight’s meeting at 6pm at City Hall. Further questions on any council business can be addressed to any Janesville City Council Member.