The Greene County Community Foundation gave a total of close to $17,000 to an organization for two projects.

Jefferson Matters received $10,500 for new decor for the Winter Festival. Jefferson Matters Executive Director Matt Wetrich says the Events Team applied for a grant to purchase new and permanent decor for the ever-growing in popularity, the Winter Festival, which will take place at Clover Hall on the Greene County Fairgrounds this year. He talks about a new addition being an indoor ice skating rink.

“Mostly for kids, I’d say. So it’s basically designed to be able to skate in your socks. For maybe the adult evening, maybe mix in some curling or something in there on this. So we’re really excited about this. We’ll be partnering with the Greene County Fairgrounds because they’re going to help store this thing for us out there.”  

The total cost of the new items for the Winter Festival was $14,095.

Tower View Team Chair Deb McGinn also applied for a grant for $6,281 of a total of $8,375 to add metal arches next to the west side of City Hall where the gazebo will feature rotating artwork on banners from local individuals.

“We do have this art group called Artist Roundtable and they are going to be creating the first artwork that goes on those panels. They’ll be on vinyl and so they’ll be weather-proofed. And then the next set of panels, I hope that we get some children involved, and have kid’s artwork on those too. We can kind of rotate them around (and) about every six months there will be new artwork back there.”

McGinn appreciates the partnership Jefferson Matters has with the City of Jefferson to allow public art to be installed on their property and adds the construction of the arches is anticipated to happen this summer.