LAPEL — When the Town of Lapel was gifted $315,000 from a fund set up by the late Olevia Cascadden, who was a longtime Lapel resident, town officials were beyond thrilled.
With the money in hand, they now are trying to figure out how best to spend the funding, which is proving to be no easy task.
They have dozens of suggestions from various town leaders and residents, and after a recent town council executive session aimed at determining where the money should be spent, town officials have decided to delay any decisions about the money, for now.
Ideas ranged from creating a matching sidewalk repair project, where residents and the town split the cost of repairing sidewalks, to buying a new police vehicle and finishing up work at Bulldog Park.
One thing is certain, town leaders want to make sure they choose a project or projects wisely.
“I think it’s probably going to end up being divided into several different things,” council President Deb Wainscott said.
While town officials came up with several good ideas, one getting the serious consideration for now is hanging onto the funding until they find a clear-cut purpose for it.
“There’s no need to rush into anything,” council Vice President Tony Pearson said.
Many around town feel residents would be best served investing the money into projects people can see, such as the sidewalk replacement plan, or using the funding for matching grant money to leverage its potential.
Pearson said he liked hearing ideas from community members about how to spend the money. He said personally he would like to see the funding used for a couple of different projects, including one to create new shelters at Woodward Park, which would be named after Cascadden.
The current shelters at Woodward Park are not safe, Pearson said, and have even been flagged for ordinance violations.
“I love the shelters in Hamilton County, but I don’t think we can afford those kinds of shelters made out of brick and mortar,” Pearson said.
Still, he said he would like to see something nicer and safer than what they have now as soon as possible.
Town officials are set to receive a certain amount of money from the Cascadden fund every two years, so some project ideas could be put on hold for a later time if not immediately needed.
Another factor in considerations is future amounts will fluctuate depending on the dividends from the fund.
While the extra money might be creating a little bit of a challenge, figuring out how best to use it is a nice problem to have, Wainscott said.
“We’ve got several options, and we need to just sit on it until we can come to an agreement on what is the most needed avenue to put the money into,” she said.
The idea to table plans to spend the money may be short-lived, though. Pearson thinks the sidewalk replacement project is a top-notch suggestion and should be looked into sooner rather than later.
If they select sidewalks, town officials would need to start getting the project organized now, gathering names and figuring out total costs, Pearson said.
“I know many people who want to go with the sidewalk replacement to make downtown more presentable,” Pearson said.
He also said the money could be used to install new sidewalks in places where they are needed.
