Larimer County commissioners reported during the July 1 administrative meeting that the Nonattainment Area Air Pollution Mitigation Enterprise has approved allocations from a $17,000,000 fund to support air-quality and environmental-justice projects across the region.

"We have been meeting over the past couple months to look at applications for the $17,000,000 in funding... and we finally made decisions," Kristen Stevens, chair of the Board of County Commissioners, said while reporting the outcomes. Stevens said the decisions will move money "out the door."

Stevens identified specific local awards described at the meeting: $1,500,000 to the Regional Air Quality Commission to expand programs previously available only in Denver; $4,500,000 to the town of Estes Park for the Marine Avenue Trail; $528,000 to the City of Fort Collins to design active-transportation connections on North College; $539,000 (joint City of Fort Collins and Larimer County) for Taft Hill Road active-transportation improvements; and approximately $1,100,000 in partial funding for U.S. 34 and U.S. 287 work in Loveland.

Stevens said the funds will support programs that can address environmental justice concerns: vehicle repair assistance for owners whose cars cannot pass emissions tests, rebates for electric lawn- and garden equipment, and support for food trucks to switch away from gas generators.

She noted one application involved the county directly and that she did not participate in the vote on that grant: "So, I could not vote on that because because that was 1 of our grants," she said.

The meeting transcript records the commissioners sharing the funding announcement; it does not show a separate county-wide vote on these allocations at this session. The reported awards reflect decisions by the Nonattainment Area Air Pollution Mitigation Enterprise and identified recipients will now proceed to implementation according to their respective program rules and agreements.