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Food bank, Habitat for Humanity among those making the cut for riverboat fund grants

Forty applicants could split $897,239 in external Grand Victoria Riverboat fund grants, a Kane County County Board committee recommended Wednesday.

Few would get all they requested if the county board approves the list without adjustment.

Overall, local governments and nonprofit entities asked for $2.2 million. The money is supposed to be used for educational, environmental and economic development activities. The county receives 7.5 percent of the net income from the casino.

When the fund started in 1997, the casino sent as much as $12 million a year to the county. But that dropped precipitously, particularly when a casino opened in Des Plaines in 2011. The county then started limiting grants to no more than $100,000 per grant.

"No entity will be getting $100,000," riverboat committee chairman John Hoscheit said Wednesday.

The closest, if approved, would be the University of Illinois Extension office in St. Charles, with a recommendation for $88,929 for its educational programs.

The smallest is $1,843 for the Dundee Township Historical Society. It had asked for $7,900 for carpeting, floor paint and a transom.

The top 10 awards

• U of I Extension.

• Fox Valley Habitat for Humanity, $68,480 for building trades training for East Aurora High School students.

• City of St. Charles, $61,482 for work on the Seventh Avenue Creek and watershed tributary plan.

• Court Appointed Special Advocates, $47,469 for training and supervising new volunteers.

• Northern Illinois Food Bank, $43,830 for vehicles, including buying a commercial van to deliver lunches to children over summer break.

• SciTech museum in Aurora, $40,580 for "Learning Science Through Water Play."

• East Aurora School District, $39,943 for band equipment.

• Housing Authority of Elgin, $38,143 for its Workforce Development of Elgin Training Center.

• Fox River Study Group, $38,122 for a "critical reaches investigation."

• Seven Generations Ahead, $34,021 to develop the Fox Valley Sustainability Network.

What's next

The county board's executive committee will vote on the recommendations in July, and after that the county board will take the final vote. Voting dates have not been set.

In 2016, the county expects to receive $3.07 million in riverboat grants. It also gives internal grants to its own departments, and those requests have not yet been reviewed.

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