Damage control underway
LISA HOBBS - News Editor
City government will be seeking in the future to secure Main Street McMinnville’s cancelled grant opportunity.
The music will go on, but not right now, says McMinnville Mayor Ryle Chastain.
“Jordan Pupols has been in touch with the Levitt Foundation, and they have said that in the next cycle they do for these types of grants that we are guaranteed it being awarded to us,” Chastain stated. “We do have to apply for it, but we, basically, won’t have to compete for it. They have given Jordan confirmation in writing that we would be one of the recipients in the next cycle. The next cycle won’t be anytime soon, or even next year. Not exactly sure when the next cycle begins; it could be 3-4 years.”
Pupols is the city’s Tourism & Marketing manager. She shared that information with the mayor Tuesday evening after a meeting of the city’s Tourism & Marketing Committee and within hours of Main Street McMinnville’s announcement that it could not financially uphold its grant obligation.
Returned grants, regardless of the reason, are often viewed negatively by grantors because they signal financial mismanagement, lack of accountability, or failure to meet expectations. Grantors take past failures into consideration in making future grant decisions. Chastain posted online that he did not feel this situation would negatively affect the city’s chances in obtaining future grants.
The grant would have utilized The Lot in offering a fall summer concert series similar to that of Main Street LIVE! summer concert series, a production of Main Street McMinnville.
The controversy is playing out online.
Kelley Angelene Snyder posted, “I assure you this decision was not made lightly. We were picked for the grant but we have not received any money. This grant is given after Main Street pays for all expenses. Which means we have to come up with the 300K and after we spend those funds they reimburse us back. Main Street is a nonprofit 501C organization that does not have that kind of money to pay for expenses first and then wait on receiving the funds back.”
“I am confused,” stated Jana Mart O’Connor on the post. “Did the board not know this was that type of grant prior to applying for it and setting up the artists? And if not, why is it that it was not known how exactly the grant would be executed? Where was the ball dropped? The math isn’t mathing.”