GCYAA awarded $200,000 from GGCGC for field and safety improvements
Grow Greene County Gaming Corporation gave the most amount of money in its history Tuesday night at their annual grant ceremony.
Close $2 million was awarded as 12 competitive grants, pledges and commitments, the local school districts and municipalities and the six contiguous counties. The main highlight of the evening was the “big ticket” competitive grants and GGCGC funded four projects in the six-figure amounts. Those included Greene County Youth Athletic Association for $200,000 over two years, the Jefferson Firefighters Association for $144,000, and the Greene County Activities Department and Greene County Development Corporation each received $100,000. Jefferson Fire Chief Jack Williams explained what they intended to use their grant funds for.
“This project is a county wide project. This project is a truck. Our biggest problem for rural fires is water supply. This truck should supply 6,000-8,000 gallons (of water) to any rural fire scene or small city that needs water supply in probably 15-20 minutes. Most of the time if we can’t get it controlled the fire in the first 20-30 minutes, we’re in trouble. This truck will help greatly with that and it will help every community in the county.”
GGCGC President Norm Fandel gave his impression about giving away the most they ever have since 2015, due to the increased amount of the adjusted gross revenue from Wild Rose Casino in Jefferson.
“It’s a ‘wow’ factor. I mean it certainly is exciting to be around the enthusiasm. You know when we came out of the covid and we saw the numbers dwindle, and we kind of wondered how we’re going to rebound? As we got into the end of ‘20 and kind of coming into ‘21, kind of saw the numbers grow a little bit, made our board really excited. It’s really been fun to see how well the casino has bounced back. What a fantastic night to give over $1.9 million away.”
Since 2015, GGCGC has given away over $9 million in grants. Click the link below to see the full list of the recipients and the respective amount of funds.