Town waiting to hear word on stimulus funds

Five projects on the Crested Butte wish list

The town of Crested Butte is still optimistic about receiving federal economic stimulus funds. Town manager Susan Parker has put in funding requests for five major projects, ranging in cost from $475,000 to $1.8 million.

“While some of the money has been released from the feds to the state and the state to specific projects, we still haven’t heard anything,” explained Parker. “We have five projects on the wish list and honestly, we’ll be lucky to get funded for one. Everyone has their hand out.”
Parker said the Colorado governor’s office has set up an oversight board to allocate the funds, and is releasing funds on a weekly basis. “The key is to be ‘shovel-ready’ and to start the project within 180 days if funds are allocated,” she said. “If a project is granted funds and it doesn’t start within 180 days, the money goes back into the pool. So even if you don’t get the money on the first go-around, you can still qualify and get some stimulus funds down the line. I will definitely be watching this.
“Our projects are ready to go right now and they meet the shovel-ready criteria,” Parker continued. “Our wastewater treatment plant clarifier request ($1.8 million) and our water distribution replacement project ($980,000) fit the bill. They are engineered and ready. We could start within a month of getting the funds.”
While Parker got an early jump on applying for the stimulus funds at the end of last year, she admits she wasn’t the only one looking at the money. “We are in the wait-and-see mode but we are monitoring the release of the funds every day,” she said. “Our projects help create jobs and bring long-term benefit to the community and that is important when they consider which projects to fund. We are hopeful.”
Parker hopes to have word about the initial funding within the month.
A list and description of the Crested Butte economic stimulus project wish list can be found at crestedbuttenews.com by following this link .