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Custer County backs AIM grant application to fund wildfire‑mitigation coordinator
Summary
The board agreed to support an AIM personnel grant application that would fund a part‑time wildfire mitigation coordinator, while asking staff to tighten wage, hours and project‑priority details before final submission.
Custer County commissioners voted Dec. 11 to support Emergency Management’s AIM grant application to fund a part‑time mitigation coordinator who would plan neighborhood mitigation projects and help implement the county’s Community Wildfire Protection Plan (CWPP).
Emergency Management staff said the application would seek roughly a 1:1 match; the department’s draft budget asked for $27,800 in local match to leverage approximately the same amount from the AIM program. The intended position would do outreach, neighborhood assessment, and help organize mitigation projects, focusing on corridors and cross‑boundary projects.
"Every dollar that you put into mitigation will save $2 in recovery," the presenter said, citing FEMA lessons on mitigation cost‑benefit. Public commenter Cindy Howard of Fire Adaptive Colorado urged the board to support the application and stressed the urgency: "FEMA says for every $1 you spend on mitigation, you save $6 on recovery," she said, citing national estimates and recent large awards to other Colorado communities.
Commissioners asked staff to tighten the application’s strategic value section: clarify hours vs. pay rate, show the specific projects and planning zones that would be targeted, and identify how the position would complement existing grants and volunteer teams. Several commissioners recommended a workshop to map priority corridors and bring in road and bridge, fire districts and contractors to avoid undercutting private mitigation businesses.
After discussion, the board voted to support Emergency Management moving forward with the AIM application, contingent on staff addressing the reviewers’ questions about pay rate, hours and project specificity prior to final submission. The board also requested additional financial scenarios that would increase hours if wage concerns limit candidate retention and urged coordination with other state and federal mitigation funding opportunities (including upcoming CWDG deadlines).
