Vision Fund presentations come to a close, the waiting game of who gets what begins

RAPID CITY, S.D. (KOTA) - In August, there were 28 vision fund applicants for community projects, and just a few months later, 23 remained to present their cases to the Vision Fund Committee over the last couple of days.

Each project had a time slot of 20-minutes to prove why their project is worth receiving the community-based funds more so than another.

Rapid City Communications Coordinator, Darrell Shoemaker, says “We had 23 presentations from community groups. Very robust discussions from those groups with the Vision Fund Citizens Committee. I think it was over about seven hours worth of presentations.”

What they’re after?

A piece of the 24-million dollars worth of available funds that have funded projects like this in the past.

There’s an element of persuasion, because there’s not enough in the vision account to fund every project.

“65-million in requests,” says Shoemaker. “24 million dollars to work with. It’s a big daunting challenge for the citizens committee.”

The Citizens Vision Fund Committee is made up of nine members who will work until December on how to dedicate the funds and then recommend their findings to City Council, who will make the final decision on how the funds will be allocated within the community. Just like they have in the past.

“We have a whole laundry list of community projects going back to the mid-90s,” says Shoemaker.

The funds are for the betterment of the community by hitting on at least one of the City’s 7 core values.

“It’s a hard challenge,” says Shoemaker, “because you get to this point and most of them are meeting at least some, or at least one of the criteria that may deserve further consideration.”

Shoemaker estimates the City will know which projects will receive the funding by January or February of next year.

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