City of Decorah Donates $500,000 towards Project

The proposed Discovery Center at Sunflower Child Care Center has gotten some additional major financial backing. The Decorah City Council Monday night approved a resolution to give the project $500,000 over the next five years.

$350,000 of that total will come from American Recovery Fund monies sent to the City of Decorah. The federal funding for COVID-19 recovery has already sent $574,000 in such monies to the City of Decorah, with an additional similar payment coming in the future.

The remaining $150,000 in funding will come from sources to be determined over the next five years.

Sunflower Child Care Center supporter and Winneshiek County Development staffer Lora Friest told the city council needed to make a decision Monday night to meet an August 27th application deadline for Sunflower's application to the Iowa Economic Development Authority for state funds through the Community Attraction & Tourism program. The more pledges a project has, the better its chances for funding and the higher state funding amount possible. Friest told city council members the proposed Discovery Center would "create a tourism attraction," so it could earn grant money which would then allow locally raised funds to be spent on the proposed new Sunflower Child Care Center instead.

The $500,000 contribution from the City of Decorah matches the $500,000 contribution recently approved by the Winneshiek County Board of Supervisors.

Original Article can be found on DecorahNews.com