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State outreach manager briefs council on rural community grants, business incentives and county classification change
Summary
Lori Haslam, outreach manager for the governor's Office of Economic Opportunity, told Oakley councilors the Rural Community Opportunity Grant tops out at $600,000, requires a ready-to-execute project and a two-year completion window, and that a county-classification change will reduce local match requirements for some grants.
Lori Haslam, outreach manager for the governor's Office of Economic Opportunity, briefed the Oakley City Council on several state programs to support rural economic development and small businesses.
Key points from the presentation: - Rural Community Opportunity Grant (RCOG): Haslam said the RCOG is open to all rural counties and cities through the Center for Rural Development. "It opens up on September and closes on October," she said. She emphasized that applications are competitive and that projects must be planned and ready to execute; any awarded project must be completed within two years of the contract date. She said the top award is $600,000. - County classification change: Haslam said Summit County will move from a third-class to a fourth-class county under recent legislation; that change reduces required local matches on some grants (from 40% to 30% in the example she gave), which she said should benefit local applicants and business owners seeking additional funding. - Ready grant for businesses: Haslam described the Ready grant, which supports job creation; qualifying employers can receive up to $6,000 per new employee on a post-performance basis and must pay the county average wage for the hire. - Red TIF: She noted the state's red TIF (tax increment financing) option for businesses undertaking significant infrastructure investment and creating new positions; that program offers a tax credit for qualifying projects.
Haslam said the RCOG program expects well-scoped projects, often including infrastructure work to attract businesses to downtowns. She offered to provide informational PDFs and application guidance to city staff and council members.
Questions from councilmembers touched on past awardees and project examples, planning support available through the state, and whether the state can help organize planning resources for cities that need assistance creating competitive applications. Haslam said the state has hired planning support contractors and can help onboard cities.
Ending: Haslam offered to follow up by email with application materials and to coordinate whether state planning resources can support Oakley projects; councilmembers asked staff to review prior grant recipients to learn from past applications.
