CLEVELAND, Tenn. — The Healthy Community Initiative met for many hours last week to decide how to award grants earned from selling Bradley Memorial Hospital in 2005.

Starting with a list of 17 applicants who asked for more than $1.9 million, the panel of residents plus two Bradley County commissioners already had pared it down to 11 requests worth more than $1.4 million.

Last week, they trimmed a $519,000 request from Cleveland City Schools for athletic facility lighting and a Blood Assurance application for $150,000. The committee must whittle further to balance the $480,000 available this year with the remaining requests.

Bradley Memorial Hospital was sold in October 2005. From the proceeds, the county received and set aside $15 million. The interest is to be spent on capital projects for community health, welfare and quality of life. United Way received $19 million to be used the same way.

The initiative’s committee was created by the County Commission to develop a grant application process.

Committee Chairwoman Lisa Stanbery said the panel should consider the number of people likely to be helped while reaching the goal of improving community health and quality of life.

Member Michael Willis said three county school requests remain on the list. Two seek playground equipment for community use. The middle school is asking for a rubberized track surface.

“I think a number of these applications are inappropriate. They are things that should be funded through their own budgets,” he said.

But others argued the projects should get some funding, if not the full amount, because they will offer exercise areas for people living around them.

“One of our charges is to look at recreation and its impact on health, wellness and quality of life,” member Dan Jones said.

Commissioner Ed Elkins, who heads the county finance committee and was visiting the initiative’s meeting, reminded the members that the money doesn’t come out of the county general fund.

“This money is hospital money, not general fund money. It’s intended for a whole different purpose,” he said.

The committee agreed some money should go toward a county recreation center on Minnis Road at the Elrod Farm site and some to the Cleveland/Bradley Greenway. The county’s safe drinking water fund remains on the list for some level of funding, too.

The committee plans to meet at 5 p.m. Monday to tweak the funding amounts for the nine finalists before the county commission meets at 7 p.m.

Initiative members acknowledged their final list may be changed by the finance committee or the full commission.

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