At the Oct. 6 workshop, County Manager Dr. Ledbetter and commissioners discussed a need for the county to have preliminary designs ready so staff can apply quickly for grant opportunities that appear with limited notice.

Dr. Ledbetter said staff and county grant personnel have missed opportunities because many grants now have very short application windows. “There are grants that are available for us that we are missing and we're missing the opportunity because these grants are presenting themselves very fast, with very limited deadlines,” he said.

County staff described examples where timelines were two weeks and awards were first-come, first-served. Staff cited a Federal Department of Transportation Rural and Tribal Assistance planning grant with a two-week submission window and said they “made one up on the spot” because no project was shovel-ready at the time. Staff also cited a recent LAMED (likely a local grant acronym) application where their internal planning allowed a successful award.

Commissioners and staff suggested transportation planning, trail connections and other candidate projects as priorities. The board directed staff to return within roughly 60 days with a list of projects and preliminary designs the county could finalize quickly when a grant opportunity appears.