Tippecanoe Township Trustee Matt Pitney received support from the Marshall County Commissioners to apply for an Office of Community and Rural Affairs (OCRA) Planning Grant during their meeting Monday.
Shannon McLeod, a grant writer appeared with Pitney and explained that since the township isn’t an incorporated area they would need the county to seek the grant on their behalf. Up to $50,000 is available for a planning grant to complete a comprehensive study on the Community of Tippecanoe.
The grant has a match of 10% which the township will provide if successful in the grant. They also have to meet the eligibility requirement of at least 51% of the population in the target area being low to mid income.
Pitney told the commissioners that he’s been playing catch-up since taking office. He said, “Our two main fire trucks are over 30 plus years old and all of our trucks are failing. Our fire station is part of the old school that has been retro-fitted. We are parking our fire trucks over the basement of the school.” He continued, “We have had a lot of things fail this year and spent endless hours repairing things ourselves trying to save the township money.” Pitney also said the Community Improvement Association has worked to keep the township looking nice.
The trustee said they would like to seek some grants to replace fire trucks, update the fire station, and do some things to make Tippecanoe Township in Marshall County a better place to live.
McLeod explained that the planning grant through OCRA, “It would allow them the opportunity to work with an architect/planner who could put together a comprehensive study of: what’s here, what needs to be improved and how they might go about prioritizing that and then matching up long term goals with funding to try and get it accomplished within the next 5 to 10 year.”
The county commissioners supported the idea to seek a planning grant from OCRA with the township agreeing to an interlocal agreement with the county. Commissioner Kurt Garner offered to be the commissioner liaison for the project if successful with the grant application.
