The Goleta City Council approved awarding $400,000 in grants to local nonprofit organizations Tuesday as part of its Support to Other Agencies program for services the city does not provide.

Through the program, the city allocates money from the General Fund each fiscal year to fund local organizations in four categories — government/interagency, city facilities/recreation, economic developments/marking and promotions, and homelessness initiatives.

For the 2023-2024 fiscal year, which starts in July, the City Council approved:

The City Council also approved money for senior programs at the Goleta Community Center, however an exact amount was not provided at Tuesday’s meeting.

The Greater Santa Barbara Ice Skating Association — Ice in Paradise — also requested $75,000 in funding through the program, but the council decided not to award any grants this year. The Grant Funding Review Standing Committee — which makes the grant recommendations — did, however, approve $4,000 in city grant money for Ice in Paradise.

Mayor Paula Perotte said that part of her reasoning for this decision relates to when the council awarded $250,000 in capital campaign funding to Ice in Paradise in 2012.

“First of all, $75,000 is quite a lot and we knew we didn’t have that,” Perotte said. “When they were doing their campaign and then they were getting started with Ice in Paradise, I know that there were several of us on the council at the time that asked for … opportunities once they got established to have some free days — maybe once a month for families. I did ask that question and I never did get an answer whether they did that or not. That was part of the agreement and so that’s where I was coming from.”

The city has gifted more than $600,000 to the ice rink, including the capital campaign funding and waiving development and park fees.

Ice in Paradise does work with the Goleta Valley Library to provide free skating admission on the first Sunday of every month to patrons of Goleta and Santa Ynez Valley Libraries.

Also during Tuesday’s meeting, the Goleta City Council voted unanimously to adopt a permanent accessory dwelling unit ordinance to replace the urgency ordinance adopted last December. 

On the consent agenda that the council approved without discussion were construction contracts awarded to JJ Fisher Construction, Inc. for the Community Garden, San Jose Creek Multi-Purpose Path, and Armitos Park Improvements Project and the Jonny D. Wallis Neighborhood Park Splash Pad and Improvements Project.

The construction contract for the Community Garden, San Jose Creek path, and Armitos Park project is for $1,931,589, and the construction contract for the Jonny D. Wallis Neighborhood Park project is for $1,600,371.

The total cost of these projects, including construction management, environmental monitoring and other costs, is $4,768,602.

— Noozhawk staff writer Serena Guentz can be reached at sguentz@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.