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SUMMIT COUNTY — With hundreds of thousands of dollars at stake, local jurisdictions are scrambling to coordinate their grant requests for energy and climate-action programs.
“As you've probably heard, there's been an issue with competing grant applications,” assistant county manager Thad Noll said Tuesday at a county commissioner work session. Noll said the commissioners several weeks ago discussed an application for funding to do a carbon inventory. Significant funds are being disbursed as part of the federal stimulus package.
“How can you say no to that,” Noll said. “Since then, we found out we'd be competing with ourselves. We'd be putting in multiple applications for the same money.”
Noll isn't the only one aware of the grant puzzle complications.
“Submitting multiple applications to the same grant program does not look favorable,” added Carly Wier, director of the High Country Conservation Center.
Wier has been trying to coordinate local efforts, but an overlapping jumble of programs, marked by acronyms that seem to cover every letter of the alphabet, makes it challenging to keep track.
Urban areas have it simpler, Wier said, pointing to a diagram and explaining how dollars from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act flow down through the channels, including the Colorado Governor's Energy Office and regional jurisdictions like the Northwest Colorado Council of Governments. Large Front Range counties qualify for relatively simple block grants. But in rural areas, options are more limited, she said.
“We need to get all the players together and work it out,” said county manager Gary Martinez. “It's clear we're going to be stepping on our own toes, so we need to coordinate. Deadlines are upon us.”
Some of the ideas tossed out during the work session included a grant for looking at a large-scale photovoltaic system to generate electricity for county facilities, as well as a countywide climate protection plan.
“There's green jobs written all over these applications,” Wier said. “Personally, I'd like to see the county focus on action, rather than another plan.”
Wier said the conservation center's goal has been to try and make projects happen “for the people,” with direct benefits like better insulation, lower energy costs and putting people back to work.
Wier said the emerging green energy industry has the potential to help local contractors and tradesmen who have been idled by the construction slump.
“As you've probably heard, there's been an issue with competing grant applications,” assistant county manager Thad Noll said Tuesday at a county commissioner work session. Noll said the commissioners several weeks ago discussed an application for funding to do a carbon inventory. Significant funds are being disbursed as part of the federal stimulus package.
“How can you say no to that,” Noll said. “Since then, we found out we'd be competing with ourselves. We'd be putting in multiple applications for the same money.”
Noll isn't the only one aware of the grant puzzle complications.
“Submitting multiple applications to the same grant program does not look favorable,” added Carly Wier, director of the High Country Conservation Center.
Wier has been trying to coordinate local efforts, but an overlapping jumble of programs, marked by acronyms that seem to cover every letter of the alphabet, makes it challenging to keep track.
Urban areas have it simpler, Wier said, pointing to a diagram and explaining how dollars from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act flow down through the channels, including the Colorado Governor's Energy Office and regional jurisdictions like the Northwest Colorado Council of Governments. Large Front Range counties qualify for relatively simple block grants. But in rural areas, options are more limited, she said.
“We need to get all the players together and work it out,” said county manager Gary Martinez. “It's clear we're going to be stepping on our own toes, so we need to coordinate. Deadlines are upon us.”
Some of the ideas tossed out during the work session included a grant for looking at a large-scale photovoltaic system to generate electricity for county facilities, as well as a countywide climate protection plan.
“There's green jobs written all over these applications,” Wier said. “Personally, I'd like to see the county focus on action, rather than another plan.”
Wier said the conservation center's goal has been to try and make projects happen “for the people,” with direct benefits like better insulation, lower energy costs and putting people back to work.
Wier said the emerging green energy industry has the potential to help local contractors and tradesmen who have been idled by the construction slump.
