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Committee votes to add up to $300,000 to 2025 grant cycle, aims for $750,000 total
Summary
The committee voted to ask commissioners to reallocate most of an unspent $450,000 Upper Arkansas Forest Fund payment into the current competitive grant round, and directed staff to refine an accelerated timeline for awards this summer.
The Chaffee County Common Ground Grants Committee voted April 16 to ask county commissioners to reallocate up to $300,000 of an unspent $450,000 payment from the Upper Arkansas Forest Fund into the 2025 competitive grant cycle, and to carry the remaining obligations into 2026.
Committee members said the move would substantially increase available grant dollars for projects this summer and spring. Ben Doon, participating by video, described the Upper Arkansas Forest Fund as a multilayered, multiyear award and said the grantee has confirmed it can defer the remaining payment into next year if the county amends the agreement. Doon also supplied a spreadsheet showing future-year obligations.
Why it matters: Committee members said there is strong demand from local partners and a need to get funds into the field this season rather than leaving them idle. Several committee members warned that shifting multiyear obligations forward can create heavier encumbrances in later years and urged staff to confirm cashflow and legal effects with county finance.
At the meeting, committee members debated how much of the $450,000 to release now. The motion that passed directed staff to present an amendment request to the Board of County Commissioners to transfer $300,000 into the 2025 cycle “contingent upon consulting with Dan [Stewart/the finance office] to confirm budgetary and legal feasibility.” Committee members said the action was intended to give applicants more funding this cycle while leaving a buffer for 2026 obligations.
The committee also discussed scheduling for an accelerated grant round. Betsy (Community Foundation staff) presented a proposed timeline that would shorten application and review windows and use the foundation’s payment machinery to speed awards and ACH payments. Members raised summer availability concerns and suggested moving application deadlines and scoring earlier in June so award recommendations could reach commissioners before late July. Betsy said she would revise and circulate the timeline to accommodate members’ blackout dates.
The committee instructed staff to: confirm the finance-office analysis of future-year obligations; prepare the draft amendment to the NFF/Upper Arkansas grant agreement for commissioners; and publish a revised application calendar that allows rolling reviews where practical.
Ending: Staff said they would return to the committee with a draft amendment and an updated timeline for publication and scoring. The committee agreed to use a working range of up to $750,000 for public messaging about the cycle while final amounts remain contingent on the finance office and the commissioners’ approvals.
