Baca County Receives Grant for Fairgrounds Upgrades

June 12, 2019

The Honorable Glen Ausmus, Chair
Baca County
741 Main Street Suite 1
Springfield, CO 81073

RE: EIAF 8917 – Baca County Fairgrounds Improvements

Dear Chair Ausmus:

The Department of Local Affairs is in receipt of your application for state Energy and Mineral Impact Assistance funds. These revenues are derived from oil, gas, carbon dioxide, coal, and metals extracted in Colorado.

Your project was reviewed based on a variety of factors such as its connection to energy impact, degree of need, measurable outcomes, amount of request, relationship to community goals, level of local match and community support, management capacity, and readiness to go. Competition for these limited funds was intense and we had many more requests than we had funds available.

Congratulations! After thorough review, I am excited to offer a grant award in the amount of $200,000 for improvements to the Baca County Fairgrounds. As a condition of the award, the County has agreed to create and fund an operations and maintenance plan for these facilities. These grant funds will be from state severance tax proceeds, which may cause you to go to election to receive and spend them. You should confer with your legal and budget advisors to determine if such an election is necessary.

Please contact your DOLA Regional Manager, Tara Marshall, for information on how to proceed. Expenditure of State funds prior to the contract being fully executed cannot be included in the contract budget or reimbursed by the State. If a circumstance arises and a grantee must spend their match dollars sooner than the full execution of the grant agreement, the Regional Manager for the respective grantee must be contacted immediately to discuss the need and offer an appropriate solution. Per our program guidelines, this offer is valid for one year from the date of this letter.

I wish you success with your project. Thank you for helping Colorado build an economy where all Coloradans can thrive.

Sincerely,

Rick M. Garcia
Executive Director
cc:
Larry Crowder, State Senator
Kimmi Lewis, State Representative
Alisha Hall
Tara Marshall, DOLA
Greg Etl, DOLA