To: Board of County Commissioners
Through: Michelle Halstead, Director, Commissioners’ Office
Prepared By:
prepared
Sara Overby, Management Analyst, Commissioners’ Office
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presenter
Presenter: Sara Overby, Management Analyst, Commissioners’ Office
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Subject:
title
2:00 PM *Federal Funding Opportunities
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Purpose and Request:
recommended action
Present potential projects for submittal and federal funding consideration from Arapahoe County through Congressionally Directed Spending requests.
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Alignment with Strategic Plan: Good Governance - Plan for future service, infrastructure, and fiscal needs.
Background and Discussion: Arapahoe County staff would like to submit grant applications for Congressionally Directed Spending (CDS) consideration to our Senators and Representatives’ Offices in federal appropriations bills in 2027. This funding typically supports infrastructure, community development, and other public projects in need of one-time funding support.
The County has been successful in previous fiscal years, including receiving $3,131,000 designated to County projects for housing, radio upgrades, interchange designs, and multi-use trail improvements in 2026.
Staff are working with department/office leads to identify project submissions aligned with Congressionally Directed Spending criteria and subcommittee guidance. These project details and budgets are underway and will be presented in the meeting.
The deadline for submissions for funding consideration will be March 10 for Congresswoman Boebert’s Office and March 27 for Senator Bennet and Senator Hickenlooper’s Offices.
Alternatives: The Board could decline to move forward with this request as presented or determine other projects for CDS consideration.
Fiscal Impact: If approved as presented, the fiscal impact to Arapahoe County will be a small amount of staff time to submit the grant application and over $1,000,000 in grant funds received if the applications are successful.
Alignment with Strategic Implementation Strategies: N/A
Staff Recommendation: Staff recommends moving forward with the grant applications as presented.
Concurrence: Community partners aligned with the projects presented will be providing letters of support as part of the grant application package.