At the recent Washington County Riverboat Foundation grant awards presentation, the largest amount given to a single organization was $100,000 to the City of Kalona. The city requested the grant to help purchase exercise equipment for the new community center, which will begin construction soon. City Administrator Ryan Schlabaugh said the grant will enable them to purchase the best equipment possible for use by the residents of Kalona and Washington County. He added, “We’re in the process of soliciting proposals from companies to come in and to kind of outfit the space with what they think would be the most appropriate use (of the funds). We’re excited to move the process forward again and try to partner with a company that will get us the best equipment for the money that we have.”

This grant brings the WCRF’s total contributions to the community center project to $400,000. In the spring, they received $300,000 from the WCRF towards the construction of the new facility. The city also approved a bond referendum of $3.9 million, which brings the total amount raised for the project to more than $4.3 million. Schlabaugh said the city is currently doing cost estimates based off design proposals, and he believes they’ll be able to bid the project competitively and come in at what they need the total cost to be. Schlabaugh thinks the city has a great project going with the community center, and he’s grateful the WCRF feels the same way and has provided so much support.