County Board approves Phase 5 of Chairman's Initiative projects

The Winnebago County Board approved an additional round of Chairman's Initiative Projects for Economic Impact. This program provides County Board members the ability to allocate American Rescue Plan (ARP) funds to various projects within their district.

Winnebago County received approximately $55 million from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) of which $1,000,000 was allocated for various Board Member Initiatives. The fifth & final group of projects brings forward 6 initiatives approved by the County Board:

• 1.Community Life Center of Rockford: $19,525 to provide innovative after school programming strategically designed to address the educational, recreation and social-emotional needs of youth in Southwest Rockford – Dorothy Redd
• 2.Northwest Neighbors: $20,000 to provide a staff member to carry out neighborhood community engagement, as well as maintaining a permanent service location in the heart of Northwest Rockford neighborhoods – Angie Goral
• 3.Rock River Valley Blood Center: $10,000 to purchase a new bloodmobile to replace the 22-year-old vehicle currently in use by the RRVBC, as the a way to recruit new donors and be more accessible via mobile blood drives – Kevin McCarthy, Fred Wescott & John Sweeney
• 4.Rockford North End: $18,000 to support and promote businesses in the Rockford North End neighborhood and build up existing charities and establishments such as Tour de North End, Friends of the Veterans Memorial Circle, West Side Showroom Theater, Hot Chocolate Crawl and other holiday events – Angela Fellars
• 5.Vietnam Veterans Honor Society: $15,000 to maintain the Veterans Memorial at Midway Village and support programming for local veterans – Fred Wescott
• 6.Winnebago County Housing Study: $10,000 to conduct a study identifying existing housing market conditions in order to facilitate policy development and provide a stable housing market focused on the needs of an expanding workforce – Paul Arena