Money initially promised by Chris Chocola may be delivered by Congressman Joe Donnelly.

Chocola had earmarked $100,000 for capital improvements to the Kokomo Family YMCA, but last-minute changes removed the appropriation.

According to Jeff Cardwell, president of the Board of Directors for the Kokomo YMCA, Donnelly told him at an earlier meeting that he would try to get the money appropriated. "True to his word, Donnelly worked on it and got it back in," Cardwell said. "It has passed the House, and it is likely to pass the Senate."

Cardwell said that Donnelly gives the bill a "high probability of success."

The money is important to keep the building running without taking away from the programming.

"The Kokomo Family YMCA is an anchor of the local community, serving over 2,000 residents by providing a number of services including child care, after-school programs, youth sports and swimming lessons," Donnelly said in a statement to the press. "But the current facility operates out of a 100-year-old building and is in desperate need of repair. Making repairs to and improving the facility would help to ensure that the YMCA will be able to continue to serve the public for years to come."

Cardwell wanted to thank Donnelly for his efforts.

"With Kokomo's economy being what it is, everybody is hurting, and so for us to get this, it is significant," Cardwell said. "We are very appreciative of Congressman Donnelly's efforts on our behalf."

Capital improvements are a large part of the YMCA's budget.

"In a 100-year-old building, there is just always something going wrong," Cardwell said. "It varies by month, but we might spend $10,000 or more a month on upkeep for that building -- some months less, some months more -- so this is going to give us extra money to put into our programs."

Even though the funds will be stretched out for improvements for the next few years, this funding will be used to keep the current building in good condition.

"One of the things, even if we build a YMCA in downtown, (is) we are a few years away from having a new facility, so we will have that continued upkeep responsibility for the next couple years," Cardwell said. "This will just help us meet those expenses."

This funding also will have no impact on the YMCA's decision regarding future locations. Cardwell says they are still scouting for possible locations.

"It will have no impact on our decision to stay downtown or to move out of the downtown district," Cardwell said. "The decision right now is, we are waiting to see what Paul Wyman's coalition does as far as getting us a suitable cost-neutral site to keep the YMCA in downtown Kokomo."

Even though the money will shift part of the YMCA's budget away from capital improvements to programming, there are no plans to add additional programming at this time. "We are pretty comprehensive right now. What this will allow us to do is not cut programs."

Program cuts were a possibility, give the current economic condition and the very tight budget the YMCA operates.

This is not the only promise Donnelly has kept to Kokomo, or to this newspaper.

When Donnelly was interviewed this summer, he was asked a question about the policy of the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Donnelly's response to the question was the standard, "My office will look into it."

Last week the Perspective received a phone call from HUD in Indianapolis to discuss their policies on the request of Donnelly.

"When I met with you in August, I said I would speak to HUD and try and find out and get some answers for you," Donnelly said. "That is what I tried to do. We called HUD right away after that to try to get answers to those questions."

Donnelly feels that even though what he said may be considered a cliché, he really does mean what he says.

"What I try to do is, if I tell you I am going to look into it, I will, because I want to get the right answer for the people of Kokomo so they can understand what is going on," Donnelly said. "That is why the first thing I did was contact HUD, and said please contact the folks at the Perspective to let them know what the policy is, what's involved, how it is applied, and why it is applied this way. We wanted the folks of Kokomo to have all the information possible, as to know what is going on."