Amador County – Amador Fire Safe Council and other agencies and non-profits may lose funds after last week’s suspension of Proposition 84-funded projects. Cathy Koos Breazeal, director of Amador Fire Safe Council received notice from the Sierra Nevada Conservancy on suspension of $100,000 in grants for wildfire protection plans for Pioneer, Pine Grove and Volcano. Jim Branham of SNC said suspensions were based on the “serious fiscal situation” in California. Branham said the suspension stops all Conservancy projects funded by Prop. 84 public bonds, which have become difficult to sell and “caused the Pooled Money Investment Board to freeze all bond funding. Based on PMIB actions, Branham said Sierra Nevada Conservancy “has been instructed to” … “suspend all grant-funded projects, and stop authorizing any new grants, including those awarded at the Dec. 4 SNC board meeting.” The letter said SNC asks grantees to “stop work on your project, unless you believe that you can continue using other funding sources.” The Amador Water Agency won a Dec. 4 SNC grant of $270,000 to develop a regional wastewater recycling plan. ln late November, AWA won a $247,547 “Local Groundwater Assistance Grant” for a sustainable safe yield analysis and a groundwater management plan for Lake Camanche Village. Both grants were Prop 84, which also finances the Amador Community Foundation and others in Amador. Koos Breazeal said Fire Safe Amador gets the bulk of its $54,000 budget from the Secure Rural Schools Funding Act, which was reauthorized this fall. She said funds normally paid through the board of supervisors will now come through the U.S. Forest Service. District Ranger Doug Barber of the Amador Unit said the Secure Rural Schools Act originally gave about 25 percent of logging proceeds from federal land to the counties for roads and school funding. That money now will be passed through a “Resource Advisory Council” and given to counties, with a high priority for fire prevention agencies, such as Cal Fire and Amador Fire Safe Council. Barber said he will head the Amador Resource Committee and it will be a “very public program,” once under way. He said Amador County will be getting about $250,000 from the program, “which is less than it received when the timber industry was really humming.” Story by Jim Reece (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.).
Monday, 22 December 2008 03:07
Wildfire Protection Grants Suspended
Amador County – Amador Fire Safe Council and other agencies and non-profits may lose funds after last week’s suspension of Proposition 84-funded projects. Cathy Koos Breazeal, director of Amador Fire Safe Council received notice from the Sierra Nevada Conservancy on suspension of $100,000 in grants for wildfire protection plans for Pioneer, Pine Grove and Volcano. Jim Branham of SNC said suspensions were based on the “serious fiscal situation” in California. Branham said the suspension stops all Conservancy projects funded by Prop. 84 public bonds, which have become difficult to sell and “caused the Pooled Money Investment Board to freeze all bond funding. Based on PMIB actions, Branham said Sierra Nevada Conservancy “has been instructed to” … “suspend all grant-funded projects, and stop authorizing any new grants, including those awarded at the Dec. 4 SNC board meeting.” The letter said SNC asks grantees to “stop work on your project, unless you believe that you can continue using other funding sources.” The Amador Water Agency won a Dec. 4 SNC grant of $270,000 to develop a regional wastewater recycling plan. ln late November, AWA won a $247,547 “Local Groundwater Assistance Grant” for a sustainable safe yield analysis and a groundwater management plan for Lake Camanche Village. Both grants were Prop 84, which also finances the Amador Community Foundation and others in Amador. Koos Breazeal said Fire Safe Amador gets the bulk of its $54,000 budget from the Secure Rural Schools Funding Act, which was reauthorized this fall. She said funds normally paid through the board of supervisors will now come through the U.S. Forest Service. District Ranger Doug Barber of the Amador Unit said the Secure Rural Schools Act originally gave about 25 percent of logging proceeds from federal land to the counties for roads and school funding. That money now will be passed through a “Resource Advisory Council” and given to counties, with a high priority for fire prevention agencies, such as Cal Fire and Amador Fire Safe Council. Barber said he will head the Amador Resource Committee and it will be a “very public program,” once under way. He said Amador County will be getting about $250,000 from the program, “which is less than it received when the timber industry was really humming.” Story by Jim Reece (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.).
