Daza said El Parral was seeking the full $15,000 in money from the SMIF in order to fund the project. According to Daza, it would cost about $17,000 to construct a kitchen addition to El Parral, $18,237 for the kitchen equipment and $2,000 in advertising costs to spread the word about the new kitchen. The grant money would be part of an estimated $31,000 in funds El Parral would hope to gather from the community in order to buy the necessary equipment, pay for advertising and use about $10,000 in overhead costs to pay for the construction, with the remainder either bargained for with construction companies or coming out of El Parral’s finances.

The only other scheduled presentation came from Riverland Adviser Miguel Garate, who came up with the idea an open school for Hispanic immigrants during the first CGI meeting. Garate’s original idea was for a school which could be operated at night or on weekends in order to help people who couldn’t speak Spanish prepare for their GED.

Garate’s updated presentation consisted of a school using El Parral’s facilities, where people could come and go at any time during the weekends, as long as they presented some form of identification such as a birth certificate from the country they were born in or other official documents. A coordinator would preside over volunteers who could teach people English, then help them study for their GED.

Members of the Leadership Team, the board of people who ultimately decide where the money’s going, reacted skeptically to Garate’s plan, bringing up concerns about the costs of licensed instructors and asking for more details on what kind of curriculum the school would use. Garate told the Leadership Team as much as he could yet acted a bit fuzzy on several details of the plan, as he was filling in for students who were supposed to give the presentation.

According to Garate, a similar school opened in Mankato with help from the Mexican consulate, which Garate said during a presentation at the first CGI meeting could provide supplies, computers and other necessities, thus keeping costs low and helping workers obtain an education which they could use as part of the community workforce wherever they go. During Wednesday’s presentation, Garate said he had spoken with the Mexican consulate, which would help verify everyone who attended the open school as well as donate supplies and several computers.

One student showed up near the end of the meeting, speaking about a community center space which would cater to children and teenagers which would include giving dance classes and tutoring help to kids still in school. Glorimar Hernandez’s project was supposed to be part of Garate’s open school idea, but the decision was made at the meeting to split them up, since there was an opening for another project.

No one from the third project, a plan to create a taxi service that would act as a guide for new immigrants to the area, was present during Wednesday’s meeting, automatically disqualifying them from receiving grant money.

After the presentations, the Leadership Team met privately to decide which project will get partially or fully funded. According to Young, everyone who presented at Wednesday’s meeting will get partially funded, as long as they follow through with their plans. The decision process wasn’t easy, however.

“It was a very tenuous process,” Young said. “We struggled with it a little bit.”