Art movements in Butler might see some support from the city in the near future after Mayor Bob Dandoy brought up the idea of establishing an annual endowment for the arts at a forum meeting on Thursday, July 10.

Dandoy said the idea came to mind during a discussion with county commissioner and rotary board member Leslie Osche about a project she is working on

“Leslie Osche, who is the shepherd of that whole project, said they’re being a little more strict about wanting to know what the match is, so they’ve got to raise $2,500 for a match for a project, and they’re asking us to help them out here,” he said.

Dandoy further explained that he would be fine with council deciding to write a check to the Rotary, but realized that this could be an opportunity to establish an endowment for the arts in the city. The money would be earmarked out of the Butler Area Sewer Authority sale funds.

“There’s a couple of different options and I’ll have these laid out for you,” Dandoy said to council. “If we took $65,000 and put it into a line item … and that’s the endowment for the arts. If it’s paying out the 4% too, that would give us about $2,600 in the first year.”

Dandoy said that money could then either be used to assist the Rotary or could be saved for a few years before anything is given out.

“It would work something like the tourism grant where different groups in the arts can come and say they want a $1,500 grant from the city,” Dandoy explained.

Dandoy said his desire to set up an arts endowment is due to the city lauding its arts community but not doing much to directly support artists or projects.

Councilman Don Shearer, however, said he’d rather see programs for businesses and property owners before something like the arts.

“It’s not the number,” Shearer said. “I feel like other stuff should be getting done before this gets done. Without having a guarantee that the other stuff is happening or is going to happen, then I got a problem.”

Dandoy responded by saying that the projects that can meaningfully affect businesses still require logistical planning and a discussion in the context of next year’s budget, while the arts endowment would be a drop in the bucket in comparison.

The topic is expected to be discussed further before a decision is made.