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Funding for youth and rec dependent on millage renewal

ALPENA — The Alpena County Youth and Recreation Committee will be getting a preview on some of the projects it could be considering later this year during a workshop Wednesday. The funding for the 2019 projects are contingent on the millage being renewed in August.

The meeting is an opportunity for groups and organizations to show their proposed projects to the committee and get instruction on how to make both the applications and presentations better. The meeting is being held in the Howard Male Conference Room in the county annex building. It begins at 6 p.m. and is scheduled to last until 9 p.m.

According to Chairman Tony Suszek, the workshop will allow the committee an opportunity to review some of the applications, which need to be submitted by May 1, and get some insight from the groups that intend to ask for funding. He said it is valuable for the committee, as well as those who are seeking money for the projects.

“We take a look at the proposals before they are required to be in,” Suszek said. “It is not required, but it’s a good idea to attend because you can get tips from the board on how to make your application and presentation better and make tweaks to it before the deadline. The last thing we want to see is having someone miss something so this is a way to maybe help projects score higher.”

Suszek said he expects a lot of funding requests from many different entities. He said during the workshop a timeline also will be established to help the board and applicants through the process.

“We’ll set up when we’ll do presentations, when the commissioners approve the recommendations and when we will grade and approve the projects,” he said.

The elephant in the room is whether or not the half-mill renewal passes in August. The millage already has been renewed once and it will be up to voters if another four years is needed. Suszek said the millage has helped lowered the cost for kids to participate in sports and other activities and also improved facilities throughout the county. He said there still is a lot of recreational needs in the county, as evident from the number of funding requests the committee has received the last several years.

If the millage fails, however, there will be little money to distribute to projects next year and none after that.

“This is all contingent on the millage passing,” Suszek said. “We have a little money that wasn’t allocated that is left over, but it isn’t much. We would likely put it toward a project or several projects.”

The deadline to submit proposals is May 1 at 4 p.m. Applications are available at www.alpenacounty.org. People who have questions on the youth and recreation millage and the funding process can call Suszek at 356-4434.

Steve Schulwitz can be reached via email at sschulwitz@thealpenanews.com or by phone at 358-5689. Follow Steve on Twitter ss_alpenanews.

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