In light of the federal government scaling back its operations, The Journal spoke with representatives from Cortez, Mancos and Dolores to see whether they feel federal dollars they may be expecting is threatened.
“There’s no way of knowing for sure, but our best educated guess is that we are safe,” said Cortez City Manager Drew Sanders.
Cortez has two grants from the U.S. Department of Transportation totaling over $1 million.
One is the Safe Streets for All grant at $203,390, and the other is the Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity grant at $825,300, said Grant Administrator Scott Baker.
“Both grants provide for essential public dialogue and collaboration, economic development analyses, and the technical engineering that enables Cortez to develop new construction and design plans for its road network,” said Baker.
Sanders said the USDOT grants have been awarded– “It does not mean we have that cash in hand.”
“What it means is that we can proceed with our grant program(s) and submit for reimbursements … up to the awarded amount,” he said in an email.
Cortez will proceed with planned projects.
Before January, the “Mancos Marshal’s Office completed a couple of federal grants,” said Mancos Mayor Cindy Simpson. “The recent federal policy changes had no impact on those.”
However, looking ahead, Simpson said the federal cuts may impact Mancos in the future since the town is “always researching grant opportunities at the federal, state and regional levels for in-town improvements.”
“Small towns and cities rely on grants for many programs and facilities,” Simpson said. “We hope the federal budget decision-makers see the benefits of and free up these vital grants soon.”
The town of Dolores has received $120,000 of federal money for the engineering piece of its storm water project to get it “shovel ready,” said Town Manager Leigh Reeves.
It has also received $750,000 of congressionally directed spending for the second phase of its water project that “could get cut,” said Reeves.
“We won’t know until the fall when we try to put the final package together for the water main replacement from First to Sixth Streets,” she said.
Reeves said that aids from U.S. Sens. John Hickenlooper and Michael Bennet’s offices “are telling us to move forward with things, but you don’t know until the day you start.”
At the state level, Colorado is struggling to balance its budget, so the $1 million grant Dolores received from the Department of Local Affairs feels insecure, too, said Reeves.
In fact, each year, the state usually awards funds from the Energy/Mineral Impact Assistance Fund in three cycles; this year, in light of budget balancing issues, it cut back to two cycles, said Reeves.
“It’s hard to say. We think we have the money,” Reeves said. “So we just have to go with it and move forward. If the money gets pulled, we just won’t be able to do the projects.”
Or, the town could get a low-interest loan from the state to do it, since the projects – in Dolores, at least – have already been pushed off for the better part of 20 years, said Reeves.
