Reno County towns are competing for a share of $50,000 — the tiebreaker is who fills out a survey
The Hutchinson Community Foundation is running the Love Where You Live survey for the third and final year
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Sign up freeHow much of a $50,000 grant pool each Reno County community receives depends on how many of its residents fill out the Hutchinson Community Foundation's Love Where You Live survey before it closes Sept. 30.
The Love Where You Live Community Empowerment Survey asks residents throughout Reno County about their communities, including what is going well, areas for improvement and their perceptions of local leadership and the economy. Jan Steen, senior program officer with the Hutchinson Community Foundation, said the foundation has established the $50,000 pool, with participating communities receiving a percentage of the funding based on survey responses. The grant incentive is new this year. The foundation opened the survey on Aug. 17.
Results from the previous round of the survey showed Reno County communities ranking jobs, housing and blight as top priorities. Steen's presentation to commissioners did not spell out how the $50,000 will be divided — whether by raw response counts, responses per capita or some other measure. It also did not specify which communities count as participating, what the grant money can pay for or who decides how it is spent.
Steen appeared before the Reno County Commission on Wednesday, Aug. 26, when he was asked to speak ahead of the consent agenda. He handed out Love Where You Live flyers to Commissioners Ron Hirst, Randy Parks, Don Bogner, Ron Vincent and Richard Winger. The survey was a presentation item, and the commission took no action on it. Later in the same meeting, Winger encouraged residents to offer constructive suggestions for improving the county.
Residents can take the survey online through the Hutchinson Community Foundation's website.
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