WAUPUN — The Waupun City Council voted to approve the draft for the new Youth Recreation and Sports Grant Program at last week’s meeting.
Earlier this month the Waupun City Council reviewed the youth sports grant fund draft and discussed changes to the program, including changing the eligible uses from purely facility improvements to also cover equipment, as well as expanding the grant for other projects such as new school playgrounds.
The Council left it at the discussion at the previous meeting, to revisit it at the following meeting held last week.
City Administrator Kathy Schlieve presented the new draft for the program, noting that the program has now been expanded to “Youth Recreation and Sports” programs.
The City allocated a total of $37,500 to the grant, and offers a maximum of $5,000 to each organization that applies to the program. Along with this, the program has been extended for both 2024 and 2025.
The grant stipulates that eligible organizations must operate in the City of Waupun and provide access to “youth/sports programming for all area youth, regardless of skill or ability.” This means that competitive travel teams would be ineligible for funding if they have a limited number of player slots on the team.
A line was also added that the grant program would favor organizations that did not receive grant awards in 2023.
Alderman Kaczmarski asked City Administrator Schlieve if the amount set by the grant could be increased at a future date, which Schlieve said could be increased at the Council’s discretion. She also said that if any funds remain in the program they would be rolled over into the next year.
On the motion of Alderman Kaczmarski, seconded by Alderman Westphal, the City Council voted unanimously to approve the grant program.
The first round of applications are due by January 31st, 2024 and reviewed by February 29th, per the draft presented at the meeting.
