The Greentown Grapevine – 2000-01, 07:01

              The Greentown
e
Januarv 2000
evtne
Volume 7, Issue 1 66a vaver for the veovle"
Greentown Sewage
Rates to Rise
Sianificantlv Less Recausq.
of Grant
A Public Hearing was held December
21 at which time an ordinance was
passed setting new sewage rates for
Greentown, effective upon receipt of
Department of Commerce funds
( expected in January). An increase in
rates is necessitated by the planned
improvements to the wastewater facility
and to sewer lines. The $ 1,172,000
project is in response to a ban against
accepting any new sewer lines until the
town can lower the volume of water
coming into the wastewater treatment
plant. The ban was placed on the town
by the Indiana Department of
Environmental Management. .
The town was given approval to
borrow the entire amount from the
Indiana Department of Environmental
Management State Revolving Loan
Fund at a rate of 3.5% per year for 20
years. A grant of $ 490,000 from the
Department of Commerce's Community
Focus Fund was approved. A study
was conducted by H. A. Umbaugh &
Associates which resulted in the
recommendations which were adopted
by the Council.
The new rates will be: base rate of
$ 3.28 per 1,000 gallmonth plus a user
fee of $ 10.35 per month for residential
use. For unmetered residences, the rate
will be $ 25.55 per month.
The average residence will be paying
$ 6.60 more than presently, but
$ 1.90/ month less than it would have
been without the = ant..
School Corporation
and Teachers Agree
AH employees of Eastern Howard
School Corporation were granted a 3%
percent raise for the 1999/ 2000 school
year. The negotiating team of Eastern
School Corporation and the Classroom
Teachers Xssociation came to an
agreement on the salaries and on 50/ 50
sharing of the increase in health
insurance premiums. Board member
Phil Bogue, who represented the Board
in the negotiations, said, " It was a
pleasureto serve on the team - there was
a good atmosphere throughout". Ralph
Herr, president of the teachers
association said, " The contract benefits
the teachers and the students".
Lions Club Receives Lilly Grant
The Greentown Lions Club, under the
auspices of the Indiana Lions Trust, has
received a grant of $ 50,000 from
Indianapolis- based Lilly Endowment,
Inc. to refurbish two buildings on the
Howard County 4- H fairgrounds for use
as meeting places for youth, social and
service groups in the Greentown area.
The project has been named the
Greentown Community Building
Project. The grant is part of ~ e
Endowment's GIFT IV ( Giving Indiana
Funds for Tomorrow) initiative, and it is
one of several community option project
grants approved recently by the
Endowment's Board of Directors.
During the last year the Endowment
allocated up to $ 153 million for the
GIFT N initiative. The GIFT IV
program makm- available $ 1.5 million
for each Indiana county, with an
additional $ 1 million for community
projects in the 15 most , populous
counties. Some $ 300,000 of that $ 1.5
million was reserved for a matching-grant
program to encourage each
fowndation to improve its operations
and business procedures. The
remaining $ 1.2 million, as with GIFT
111, can be matched by the community
foundations and used for their own
purposes ( building their endowment,
etc.) ' or the local community
foundations can recommend projects for
direct Endovyment grants - or they can
choose to do both.
The Community Foundation of
Howard County, Inc. subsequently
dedicated funds from its $ 1.2 million
allocation for community projects. The
local foundation endorsed the proposal
of the Greentown Lions Club and it has
been approved by the Endowment.
Jay Freeman, chairman of the
building project, states that he is very
excited about receipt of the grant, He
said, " The Greentown Lions have talked
for a number of years about refiubishing
the two exhibit buildings commonly
referred to as the ' block building' and
(. I
the ' metal building' to make them more
usable for the 4- H members, but never
had the amount of money needed at the
right time. When this opportunity to
seek funds came about, it was possible
to expand the planned use of the
buildmgs to be community buildings as
well as 4- H buildings. This grant will
go a long way in the remodeling of the
buildings."
Begun in 1990 by the Endowment, the
GIFT initiative has seen the growth of
viable, county- based community
foundations in Indiana mushroom from
fewer than a dozen to more than 90.
Their assets jumped fi- om less than $ 100
million to more than $ 700 million. Now
in its fourth phase, the program is based
on the premise that local citizens -
through a prmss of interaction,
discussion and decision- making - can
best decide what projects are most
needed in their own areas, and they can
decide the best destinations for their
local philanthropic dollars.
'
The new Greentown Community
Youth Choir presented its first musical,
Hark, the Herald Angel, at a dinner
theatre in Meridian Street Christian
Church December 3 and 4.
The cast was: Hark, Tyler
Echelbarger; Choir Director, Kylie
Warner; Gabriel, Kevin Boucher;
Michael, Jill Zook; Mary, Hailey
GosneIl; Joseph, Cody McMahon;
Shepherds, Kyle Land, Mike Pratt, and
Nicholas Shiffer. The Choir was
composed of: Kasey Adams, Kyla
Alexander, Jennifer Bogue, Ashley
Bohmer, Sabrina Boucher, Shila
Branum, Kaula Brown, Brittany Burton,
Jenny Cass, Sage Chamness, Courtney
Childers, Samantha Denato, Chelsea
Dimh, Jamie Fansler, Sarah GerstorfT,
Hailey Gosnell, Larissa Graves,
Amanda Hartley, Sara Homer, Megan
Jackson, Rebekah Jaenicke, Rebecca
Kady, Brean King, Kyle Land, Autumn
McDonald, Cody McMahon, Alicia
Meranda, Tiffany Ploughe, Elise
Pollard, Mike Pratt, Emily Rethlake,
Kristi Seagrave, Nicholas Shaffer, Katie
Sparling, Cali Spence, Krystyl
Vandergriff, Rebecca Wooley, Melissa
Zimmerman, and Jill Zook.
The Youth Choir is directed by Pam
Youth Choir
Presents Musical
England. The Choir will soon begin The manger scene was the climax of the musical, Hark, the Herald
practice for its next perfiormance, which Angel, presented by the Greentown Community Youth Choir
will be in the spring. Photo by R. Jenkins