Marion is nearing i’s $1.5 million goal for the Klopfenstein Amphitheater for the Performing Arts after receiving a $250,311 grant from Vision Iowa’s Community Attraction and Tourism committee last week. Vic Klopfenstein, former mayor and chairman of the fundraising efforts, said the project is within $100,000 of reaching it’s goal and there are still outstanding [...]

With financing coming together for the amphitheater planned for Marion’s Lowe Park, project supporters expect work to start next spring. Project supporters will launch a fundraising effort Friday morning to match a $150,000 grant from the Cedar Rapids-based Hall-Perrine Foundation. “This is pretty important for us, because we’ve got to match that” as a condition [...]

Much spending by Iowan counties is out of the hands of  supervisors, who must allocate their budgets according to state and federal guidelines. But there’s one area where Linn County supervisors have discretion: the county’s economic development fund. Supervisors, who have spent $135,100 of the $200,000 fund for the fiscal year that started July 1, [...]