Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Climate Action Plan topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Routt County Climate Action Plan Collaborative reports first-year implementation gains and awards $50,000 in local decarbonization grants
Summary
The Climate Action Plan Collaborative told commissioners it has moved from plan adoption to implementation, secured a Colorado Energy Office award to study countywide building electrification and issued four small grants to local decarbonization projects.
Representatives of the Routt County Climate Action Plan Collaborative updated commissioners on May 12 about one year of implementation activity, technical working-group work, and small grants to local projects.
Gail Gary, chair of the Climate Action Plan Collaborative Board, and Tim Woganoff briefed the board and highlighted milestones: Routt County and partner jurisdictions completed a 2021 climate action plan and signed an intergovernmental agreement to form a collaborative charged with implementing the plan’s 22 strategies. Working groups of volunteers and technical experts produced 40 recommended priority actions, and the collaborative’s first year has focused on putting those recommendations into practice.
The collaborative secured a three-year Colorado Energy Office grant (about $264,000) to fund a countywide building electrification and decarbonization plan, a public dashboard, and workforce-development work to support local contractors. The county, city and town of Hayden are pursuing facility decarbonization benchmarking and solar feasibility studies; Hayden is additionally exploring geothermal options.
Commissioners were told transportation and waste initiatives are also under way: county staff support EV readiness planning, a community scan to reduce vehicle miles traveled, and participation in a regional transportation authority (RTA) formation. On waste, the collaborative is promoting consistent recycling standards, exploring a community recycling center for hard-to-recycle materials, and tracking Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) legislation that will create statewide recycling infrastructure and producer-funded recycling programs.
The collaborative board awarded $50,000 in small implementation grants from its local fund to four projects: a solar array at Reading Ranch ($20,000), a regional reenergize pilot under the CO COG ($20,000), an upcycling bike program to promote active transportation ($5,000), and a festival lighting retrofit to LEDs ($5,000).
Board members said the collaborative will continue to support county priorities through technical assistance and by channeling modest grant funds to pilot projects, while emphasizing climate equity and workforce development as priorities. Commissioners thanked the collaborative for the update and suggested closer coordination on energy transitions for residents with limited means.
