Envision Chaffee County announced Aug. 13 that three grants totaling $40,475 have been awarded to three separate “action plan” projects. The three were identified by the Envision process as important to improve quality of life and create the future the community wants as the county grows.
The largest, identified as a $23,475 Chaffee Resources project, is a combined effort of the Chaffee County Health Coalition. The funds from the United Health Foundation will be combined with additional resources from Chaffee County Government, Heart of the Rockies Regional Medical Center and Chaffee County Public Health. The purpose of the funds will be to help develop a website to provide access to regional health, wellness and quality of life services such as childcare, family activities and transportation.
“What Envision is trying to do is capture recent successful projects that have received grant funding. It’s a good thing to get the word out that we’re working on this web resource guide,” said Chaffee County Public Health Director Andrea Carlstrom.
The second, a $5,000 grant, was awarded to the Chaffee Watershed Work Group by the Nonpoint Source Pollution program at the Colorado Department of Public Health’s Water Quality Control Division. The work group was formed to improve wet areas along streams and rivers for better water quality and wildlife habitat and to create resilience to post-fire floods. The grant funds will address streams impaired with toxic pollution and will be overseen by Chaffee County Public Health.
A third, $12,000 grant funded by the state of Colorado was awarded to Chaffee County and the Chaffee County Economic Development Corp. The grant is designated to the Small Business Grant project to support local businesses through the Small Business Development Center and to designate the county as a Certified Small Business Community. The CCEDC has also received a Rural Economic Development Initiative grant to increase links between local small businesses and improve their rates of job creation.
The three new grants are a small portion of $350,000 in grant funds being sought as a result of the year-long planning process, resulting in a Community Action Plan, which includes some 40 projects led by community members to address the county’s growth challenges.
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