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Kane County CEO board wins $200,000 Rural County grant and pushes for qualifying projects
Summary
The Kane County Economic Development Board said it received a $200,000 Rural County grant and urged municipalities to submit qualifying projects; members debated allowable uses, data needed to allocate funds by business-license counts, and potential proposals including a newspaper business-directory insert and a road purchase in Church Wells.
The Kane County Economic Development Board announced that its FY 2024–25 Rural County grant application was approved, bringing a new $200,000 award to the county and prompting members to seek qualifying projects to spend the funds.
Board staff told members the application was built off last year’s submission and was approved, saying, "it was approved. So we have our next $200,000." Members reported the county’s current funds as “just shy of $400,000,” with one speaker noting an accounting view that would leave a county share of about $363,000 and, in practice, closer to $600,000 when other allocations are counted.
Why it matters: The board must allocate the new funds soon. Staff said distribution will be determined by municipal business-license counts, with Kanab cited as having “around 600 plus” licenses and therefore expected to receive a larger share. Board members asked staff to collect license counts from every municipality so the formula can be applied and projects selected.
Board members discussed what qualifies under the Rural County grant program. Staff summarized the program elements as "business recruitment, development, and expansion, workforce training and development, and infrastructure and capital facilities improvements for business development," and said the guidance is intentionally broad. Speakers said the board has generally avoided direct business incentives in recent years and focused more on public infrastructure, trainings and tourism-related projects, citing past examples such as a $3,000 business advertising mailer, a cosmetology school grant, a UDOT feasibility study, and a $25,000 paved-trail contribution to Orderville.
Members also proposed specific projects to bring forward. One suggestion was to rework a Church Wells proposal asking roughly $14,000 to purchase road access from SITLA so landlocked parcels could be bought or sold; a board member said that purchasing the road might allow owners to transact lots and described that as a potential qualifying infrastructure-type project. Another idea was a county-wide business directory inserted in the Southern Utah News as a free distribution to all households; proponents said it could advertise the paper and support local businesses.
Staff and members agreed to gather municipal business-license counts (a staff member said they would accept a simple numeric count by text or email), prepare written proposals for both the Church Wells access purchase and the newspaper/business-directory idea, and bring completed applications to the board for formal consideration. A board member suggested publishing a simple, adaptable application or checklist that lists program categories, asks how a proposal fits those objectives, and requests amounts and other funding sources.
What’s next: Staff will collect license counts from the towns, post or circulate application guidance, and accept written proposals to bring back to the board for decision. No formal vote on project approvals was recorded at this meeting.
Quote examples from the meeting: "We have our next $200,000," (Unidentified Speaker 2) and "we need projects to spend this money on" (Unidentified Speaker 2). The meeting adjourned after the board handled its business and set expectations for follow-up.
