The money that had been allocated for the Allegany County Opportunity Scholarship will be repurposed to support emergency medical services. Allegany County receives 3.75% of the state’s portion of the proceeds from the video lottery terminals at Rocky Gap Casino Resort in the form of a local impact grant. Since 2014 those funds have gone to the Allegany County Opportunity Scholarship which went to local students who chose to attend Allegany College of Maryland or Frostburg State University. Those scholarships will be funded through 2020. 560 thousand dollars is the total amount of funding Allegany County receives each year according to Local Development Council Chairman Jason Bennett. The group met in December during a public meeting and made the decision to reallocate the funds from the scholarship to the County for emergency services. Bennett says there will be a Local Development Council meeting coming up within the next few weeks and members of the public are welcome to attend the meeting. Bennett says right now there is a dire need for EMS funding. Each year the LDC will review the needs of the county and where the funding will need to be allocated. The Council makes recommendations about the use of the local impact grant funds to the Board of County Commissioners.
To hear the interview click here https://soundcloud.com/amanda-mangan/local-development-council-jason-bennett-for-pht
