City Seeks Apps for Vision Fund Citizen Committee, Public Projects
CITY COUNCIL APPROVES FORMATION OF VISION FUND CITIZENS COMMITTEE AND SOLICITS FOR PUBLIC PROJECTS APPS
City opens 30-day window for committee applications and 60-day window for city project proposals
RAPID CITY, SD--At Monday night’s meeting, the Rapid City Council approved two Vision Fund resolutions, one establishing a nine-member citizen committee and another increasing the amount of money being allocated to public projects from the Vision Fund in the upcoming 2025-2029 funding period.
“With the Council’s approval of resolutions Monday night, we are ready to move forward with the Vision Fund process,” said Mayor Jason Salamun. “I have appreciated the input and feedback we have received over the past year from the public and the hard work put in by the Council to get us to this point.
“I’m encouraging citizens to consider applying to serve on the Citizen Committee, which will have a very important role in determining public projects to be funded from the Vision Fund. I’m also encouraging citizens and groups to submit proposals for public projects to be considered by the Citizen Committee.”
CITIZEN COMMITTEE
With the Council’s approval, the City is seeking applicants to develop a nine-person Vision Fund Citizen Committee. Interested citizens are encouraged to apply by submitting the committee application found https://www.rcgov.org/departments/finance.html . The links are also available on the Finance Department page and the Vision Fund Citizen Committee page on the City’s website. Application deadline is Friday, February 7.
The Vision Fund Citizen Committee will consist of a chair person and eight additional committee members. Committee members must be legal residents of Rapid City and willing to serve until the end of 2025.
The purpose of the Vision Fund Citizen Committee is to accept and take requests for city government Vision Account projects. The committee will provide thorough review of the applications and make recommendations to the City Council in support of projects in accordance with the Council-approved Vision Fund plan for the upcoming five-year cycle.
PUBLIC PROJECT APPLICATIONS
The City is also seeking applicants for potential Vision Fund public projects. Vision Fund public projects will be considered for the five-year period 2025-2029 in the areas of community projects, economic development and civic improvements. Project applications can be found on the Vision Fund Citizen Committee page on the City’s website or obtained in hard copy through the mayor’s office. Deadline for submission of public project applications is Friday, March 7.
With Council’s approval Monday night, the Vision Fund Citizen Committee will consider city government projects with approximately $12 million in Vision Funds.
Project applications can be found at the following link https://www.rcgov.org/departments/finance.html , on the Finance Department and Vision Fund Citizen Committee pages on the City’s website or obtained in hard copy from the Mayor’s Office.
The origin of the Vision Fund dates back to 1972 when voters approved an additional half-penny sales tax increase with the revenue to be spent on the building of the Rushmore Plaza Civic Center. In the mid-1990’s, voters approved continuation of the half-cent tax to build a fund to support community projects. Today, Rapid City assesses two cents in municipal sales tax on every dollar spent with one cent devoted to the City’s general fund and the second penny divided between the City’s Capital Improvement Fund (58 percent) and to the Vision Fund (42 percent).
A portion of the Vision Fund resources are used towards the debt on The Monument’s Summit Arena with other funds to be utilized for civic improvements, economic development and community projects.
Please direct questions regarding the Vision Fund Citizen Committee or the project application submittals to the Mayor’s Office at 605-394-4110.