By Kelly Young
news@jacksonvilleprogress.com
Six months into his tenure as the city’s grant writer, Ken Ripkowski is ready for more. A certified public accountant with the city, Ripkowski said he spends roughly 12 hours of his work week applying for and researching grants, but that he can handle more.
“I don’t get to devote as much time to grants as I would like. As I’m able to devote more time to it, I think the city will see even more benefit from it,” Ripkowski said. “Assuming my current work level stays the same, with the same amount of activity in my other jobs, I think I have the capacity to do more grant work for the city. For the foreseeable future, I think I could handle more grant requests.”
Ripkowski would like to get to the point were he is spending half his time, or more, focusing on bringing outside money into Jacksonville.
According to Ripkowski, the process begins when one of the city’s many department heads contacts him with a grant idea.
“I wait for a city department head to ask me to go after something. It starts with a request, then I look into the grant and see what its application is like and what its requirements are,” he said. “A lot of the grants we look at require the city to come in with some matching funds, so it’s got to go through the proper channels. I can’t just say, ‘Here’s a grant for you. By the way, it requires $40,000 of the city’s money in matching funds.’”
Since taking over grants for the city, Ripkowski has applied for seven grants and has successfully received, or is in the process of receiving, six of them.
“The value of these are about $100,000 in grant money. This doesn’t include the city water and sewer grant that we received from the East Texas Council of Governments or other utility grants that we have been doing since before I started this,” Ripkowski said.
Ripkowski is currently working on a grant with Wade Davis, parks director, through the Tony Hawk Foundation, for the construction of a new skate park.
He is also researching two possible fire-safety grants with Fire Marshal Brent Smith. One, through the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), would provide 5,000 smoke detectors for the people of Jacksonville. The other grant would allow a Safety Village to be built where children could learn the importance of fire-safety.
Will Cole, director of public works, and City Manager Mo Raissi have approached Ripkowski concerning a possible grant for the chemicals the city uses to combat the hydrilla infestation in Lake Jacksonville.
“The application process is different for each grant. If you have a private foundation, they may have a ream of paper forms to fill out. Some are on the Internet, which makes the process easier — you just have to go to their website, download the PDF file, fill it in, send it back and wait for a response,” he said. “It all depends what they are asking for; it could be a short-and-sweet application or it could be fairly extensive. I printed one out the other day that was inches thick.”
The tasks of implementing the city’s new computer system and switching Jacksonville’s bank depository have taken up much of his time recently, but as his other responsibilities begin to calm down, Ripkowski is ready to focus on grants.
“It’s been a slow, six-month learning curve for me, but I feel like getting behind the wheel and seeking out these grants is the best way to learn. I wish the other department heads would come to me more than they do,” Ripkowski said. “I think the city does a good job of seeking out and applying for grants, and I think we will be able to do an even better job in the future.”
