By Vernon Robison

Moapa Valley Progress

Five non-profit organizations in the Moapa Valley community will be the recipients of a total of $96,000 in Clark County grant funding over the coming year. The Board of County Commissioners gave final approval on the Outside Agency Grants (OAG) for the 2012 fiscal year at a meeting held Tuesday, November 16.

The local organizations which received OAG support included the Cappalappa Family Resource Center (CFRC), Society for the Preservation of the Old Overton Gym, Old Logandale School Historical and Cultural Society (OLSHACS), Moapa Valley Performing Arts Council (MVPAC) and United Seniors, Inc.

Four of the local organizations received a significant increase in funding in comparison to last year’s funding. CFRC received $55,000 which is up from $49,500 last year, returning it to its previous 2010 fiscal year OAG funding. Both Old Overton Gym and OLSHACS received $18,000 which was up from $13,500 from the previous year. MVPAC received $2,500 in OAG funding. up from $1,800 last year.

Local administrators from these organizations were overjoyed to hear of the increased grant funding.

“We are totally thrilled!” said CFRC administrator Penny Vallone. “This funding is so important to allow us to continue to do what we do. We are just grateful to be in business another year.”

Vallone explained that the funding will allow CFRC to continue to mantain its important case management programs including the community food bank, welfare services and parenting classes. Currently the center assists 350-400 local families each year, Vallone said.

Chris Green of the Old Overton Gym board said that news of the increased funding brought a whole new light to the upcoming year.

“Frankly, we were expecting another hit to our budget this year,” Green said. “We know that budgets have been tight at the county level. So this news just floored me. Whatever happened; however they worked it; our commissioners have been good to us and it makes such a huge difference.”

OLSHACS Chairwoman, Beezy Tobiasson, said that she had been fretting about this grant funding for some time.

“I’ve been sweating and sweating wondering how we would manage if we didn’t get it,” Tobiasson said. “This has brightened my whole day.”

Tobiasson has plans to make needed improvements to the School’s Veteran’s Wall and also re-finish the hardwood floor in the school’s main hall.

United Seniors, Inc., the operator of the Overton Senior Center was the only one of the five local organizations that saw a decrease in its OAG funding. Last year the Senior Center received $14,250. This year the organization received only $2,500 in OAG funding.

This came as a disappointment to Senior Center director Christine Trombley.

“We were hoping for at least the same as we received last year,” Trombley said. “After all, we have more expenses now than we have ever had.”

Trombley said that much of the funding was planned to pay for transportation costs; fuel, insurance and maintenance on Senior Center vehicles.

The Senior Center has a transportation program, in coordination with Silver Rider Bus Lines, to assist local seniors in getting to and from medical appointments in Las Vegas. Without the OAG funding, it will make it very difficult to continue those types of programs, Trombley said.

Still, Commissioner Tom Collins said that, considering the county’s continuous budget tightening in recent years, local organizations came out very well.

“When I first got elected the total budget for Outside Agency Grants was we had $7 million to work with,” Collins said. “This year we were down to $2.6 million. But those organizations are vital to the rural communities. I wanted to make sure that you got all that you deserved out there; and then some.”