“What’s in a name?” Shakespeare asked, somewhere in the second act of Romeo and Juliet.

In answer to that storied question, Kane County Board member Douglas Scheflow might say, “a lot,” particularly in regard to the name of a fund that is contributing more than $4 million to Kane County projects and more than $1 million to worthy causes this year.

Scheflow was one of the proponents of renaming the Riverboat Fund the “Grand Victoria Casino Elgin Fund,” a resolution that passed 20-0 at Tuesday’s County Board meeting.

Scheflow said the Riverboat Fund is a misnomer for a couple reasons.

First, it’s no longer a functioning riverboat, he said. When casinos started opening in the early 1990s, they were required to cruise, but the law changed in 1999, allowing the boats to permanently moor without conducting cruises.

Second, while there are other riverboat casinos in the state of Illinois — including Hollywood Casino in Aurora — Grand Victoria Casino is the sole revenue source of the formerly named Riverboat Fund.

“We call it a Riverboat Fund, but this came prior to the Elgin riverboat naming itself,” Scheflow said Tuesday in response to a question by fellow board member Melisa Taylor. “There is no funding from any other riverboat. It was driven by the mayor of Elgin at that time. Since we are getting these funds from an entity, we ought to mention them by name.”

Taylor voted in favor of the resolution, which also authorized funding for external projects in Fiscal Year 2014. However, Taylor said she would have liked to have seen a contribution to the Northern Illinois Food Pantry and that she was concerned about potential conflicts of interest between elected officials and the organizations that received funding.

The mission of the fund is “to serve as a financial aid for programs strengthening Kane County’s communities and government through efforts in education, environment, and economic development and with emphasis on addressing Kane County problems and providing long-term solutions.”

A video explaining the fund and how to apply for grants is embedded here.

• Editor’s Note: Kane County Connects is funded by the Grand Victoria Casino Elgin Fund.
• CORRECTION: County Board member Melisa Taylor voted in favor of resolution #14-278. An earlier version of this article incorrectly reported that she voted against it.