Garfield County discretionary grants awarded to local entities

After receiving 24 discretionary grant requests totaling $114,000 from nonprofit or government organizations earlier this month, the Garfield County commissioners had decisions to make with just $87,000 left in the fund for 2019.

However, Commissioner Tom Jankovsky explained this week that the county would use an additional $48,000 for discretionary grant funding this quarter after receiving $63,000 back from Mind Springs Health earlier this year.

Already, $15,000 of that was used to support Rifle’s new coworking space.

Of the $114,000 requested from the commissioners on May 6, 16 nonprofit organizations are to receive $85,000 for the second quarter grants.

Three $5,000 grant requests: one from Lower Valley Trail Association, one from New Castle Trails Roaring Fork Mountain Biking Association, and one from Rifle Area Mountain biking Organization were funded using the separate Conservation Trust Fund.

An additional $2,500 for the Family Resource Center of the Roaring Fork School District was funded from Human Service mini-grants.

In summary, the commissioners awarded $67,000 in discretionary grants for the second quarter, leaving $68,000 in the discretionary fund for 2019.

While $120,000 was originally budgeted in the discretionary fund for 2019, the additional money back from Mind Springs puts the total at $168,000.

Jankovsky said he felt the discretionary grants should be used for nonprofit organizations, which don’t benefit from grant opportunities like the Federal Mineral Lease District, and therefore a request from the Town of Parachute was not funded.

He added that, while the commissioners were able to fund $85,000 worth of nonprofit grant requests on Monday, that may not be the case every year.

“Things broke the right way this year, but I don’t know if that will always happen,” Jankovsky said. “As we see less funding and get more pressure for grants, it won’t always happen that way.”

azorn@citizentelegram.com