Cheshire County grants manager reports record awards, staffing impacts and program complexity

Cheshire County Grants Manager Suzanne Sierra presented a six‑month report to commissioners on Feb. 12 describing grant activity, program complexity and training plans.

Sierra said the county managed 44 grants in 2024 totaling about $21 million in award value, with roughly $5 million recorded as revenue that year. She said grants come with multiple layers of rules (federal, state, agency, program and grant‑specific) and that managing draws, customized financial reporting, budget revisions and documentation is time‑consuming. She stressed the county maintains a separate spreadsheet for each grant to reconcile budget to actual and to track deliverables.

Sierra highlighted program and staffing impacts: in 2024 she tracked an estimated 15 jobs that existed because of grant funding, including multiple positions funded fully or partially through grant awards she manages. She reported 13 new awards in 2024 and several pending applications for 2025; she said the grants-writing pipeline is active but grant timelines can be slow and unpredictable.

Sierra described a prolonged USDA application for Red Barn equipment (originally a building renovation request) that has required repeated documentation and long agency turnaround; she said the bureaucratic burden had been “unbelievable” and cautioned about lengthy federal processes.

On training and outreach, Sierra said she has led grant-writing courses and provides free grant-search and technical assistance to towns and nonprofits. She plans a May–June grant-writing class and a June refresher on grant administration for county departments, pending commissioner approval of scheduling and capacity.

Sierra also noted fiscal sponsorship work (notably community development block grants administered through the Southwest Region Planning Commission), recapped recurring JAG funding and other regular sources, and said she is pursuing congressionally directed spending award follow‑up for sheriff’s office records management and mobile data terminals.

Ending: Sierra asked commissioners to support continued grant training and to consider capacity needs for sustained grant management; she said grant work is steady and advised caution about relying on uncertain federal funding cycles.