The Soldotna City Council passed a resolution that would amend the city’s Mini Grant Program Policy. At the recommendation of the Mini Grant Review Team, the policy was amended to address needed changes identified during previous application cycles. The fourth application process concluded in August of 2021 identified the need for substantial changes to the Mini Grant Program Policy.
Council Member Justin Ruffridge:
“The two that really were major changes would be to remove projects so that we could maybe further define that this was to be for an event or a service or something rather than renovations or acquisitions or expansions of property and things of that nature. The second item in the interests of keeping this a small grant for somebody for a small organization or an individual who was trying to offer a service that has great community benefit is limiting organizations with budgets that exceed $100,000 would not be eligible to apply for the mini grant. The city of Soldotna certainly has a non-departmental budget timeframes where we discuss giving to other entities with larger budgets, that would be more appropriate for awarding it at that time rather than for the mini grant. This is in the interest of maybe not having people waste their time on applications that maybe don’t meet with the program and trying to clear that up for those applicants.”
Vice Mayor Lisa Parker:
“Two additional things that the amendment to the mini grant program would do. It would remove the nonprofit requirement and allow other types of groups to apply for the mini grants. Second, since we would eliminate having a committee making the recommendations, the recommendations would come from the council itself. It would establish a process for the council to review and select mini grant recipients.”
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Resolution 2021-054 unanimously passed.