24-05-2025
Goshen awards $250K to service organizations
GOSHEN — The city has awarded more than $250,000 to nine community service organizations that meet local needs.
The Goshen Board of Works on Thursday approved a series of small grants to local organizations. They include $50,000 each to the Goshen Chamber of Commerce and the Downtown Goshen Inc. First Fridays program as well as $35,000 to the Warsaw Housing Authority and $30,000 to First Light Mission.
Grants of $25,000 were given to the Economic Development Corporation of Elkhart County and $20,000 to the DGI facade program, as well as $5,000 to DGI's administrative needs. The city awarded $15,000 to the Goshen Historical Society, $10,000 to the Elkhart Symphony Association and the First In Chaplain Crisis Response Team, and $2,750 to the South Bend-Elkhart Regional Partnership.
Mayor Gina Leichty said the organizations made presentations to the Community Relations Commission before their requests were considered for full or partial funding. She said the city has supported these organizations in the past and that Goshen City Council included the money in the budget it approved.
Councilman Matt Schrock questioned the spending in the face of revenue cuts that state lawmakers imposed on local governments this year.
'We're supposed to be tightening up our belts because of the new property tax laws and all that sort of thing, and the loss of revenue that we're going to have,' he said. 'Are these bare minimums for these amounts? I guess long story short, this seems like a lot of money to spend when we're supposed to be saving money.'
Leichty said the amounts awarded to the organizations have not been increased for several years. She said they consider the services that they provide the city worth the investment, and highlighted the small business counseling that the chamber offers as an example.
'One of the services that the Goshen Chamber provides is business counseling services to anybody, it's not just to chamber members,' Leichty said. 'So they're providing education and support to assist small businesses, and it's one of the only ways that the city provides support to small businesses.'
She cited the chaplain team as another organization that meets important needs. Those include providing food and drink to firefighters and police officers during crisis situations and accompanying police when they have to deliver a death notification.
'We try to be as judicious as we can with our community partners while still accomplishing the items that we've set forth to do and priorities the city has established,' Leichty said. 'There are many needs in our community that we cannot meet with staff alone, and so we feel like one of the ways that we can stretch those dollars is by partnering with other organizations... What we're trying to do is provide the support or provide meaningful arts and recreation activities or support to homeless folks in our community by spreading that around a number of organizations.'
