The Washington County YMCA made a funding request at Tuesday’s Washington County Board of Supervisors meet.

An appeal for a commitment to financing in the amount of $5,000 was made for prep work to county YMCA facilities to outfit them with generators, giving them the capacity to serve as relocation centers for those who may displaced by a disaster in the county. The generators would give the facilities 24-7 power. Kalona City Administrator Ryan Slabaugh explained “The commitment here today, is the county willing to help with some of the preliminary cost? So that at a later date when funding is available and Marissa Reisen writes a good grant that allows for a generator…that some of those infrastructure things are taken care of.”

Supervisor Richard Young commented “First of all, I want people to understand this is for emergency shelters, not an EOC that we are talking about at communications. Two separate things. This is for emergency shelter if a bunch of people’s houses get wiped out, they have a place to go, stay, do whatever they need for basic needs, sleep, and put cots up.”

The request for a commitment allows the group to meet with Enhance Iowa on Wednesday, September 12th. During this meeting they will disclose all funding and commitments to the project and be able to better decide financing plans and future grant requests.