Rural Communities Opportunity Grant - Water Infrastructure

Limited grant funds have become available from the Rural Communities Opportunity Grant administered by the Governor’s Office of Economic Opportunity, to address emergency water infrastructure problems that directly affected the economies of small rural communities in the State of Utah. 

The overall available funding for this grant is $300,000, with a maximum award of $100,000 to a single community.

Prioritization

Priority will be given to rural community applicants that experienced water infrastructure emergencies during 2021 and 2022 that:

  • Required transfer of funds within the community’s own general fund,
  • Required fund transfers from other governmental organizations, or
  • Required temporary short-term loans from lending institutions,

And,

  • Caused water shortages affecting residential and commercial users, 
  • Whose economy would have negatively been affected without deploying emergency mitigation measures, and
  • Who have not recovered emergency funds expended by any other revenue collection means available to them. 

For the purpose of this grant, a “Rural Community” means a rural county or rural municipality as defined in Section 63N-4-801. Rural communities eligible for the Rural Communities Opportunity Grant (RCOG) include: counties of the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth class; cities, towns, and metro townships located in counties of the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth class; and municipalities with a population of 10,000 or less in counties of the second class.

Grant funding is competitive and requires matching funds from the rural community.

Grant Purpose

The RCOG is designed to address the economic development needs of rural communities, including:

  • business recruitment, development, and expansion;
  • workforce training and development; and
  • infrastructure and capital facilities improvements for business development.

Qualifying Requirements

  1. A rural county must form and have a functioning County Economic Opportunity Advisory Board (CEO Board). A rural municipality must have a functioning planning and zoning commission, or a duly organized municipal economic opportunity advisory board or commission, that will act under the same advisory role as a CEO Board.
  2. A formal application must be submitted by the community legislative body through the Governor’s Office of Economic Opportunity
  3. The application must include a description of the project approved by the community legislative body, based upon recommendations of the CEO Board, or the planning and zoning commission or a duly organized municipal economic opportunity advisory board or commission for a municipality. The description must include:
    1. Scope of Work
    2. Project and Activities Budget
    3. Timeline
    4. Deliverables and Outcomes
  4. The applying community must demonstrate a funding match, which may be provided by any combination of:
    • a community reinvestment agency,
    • redevelopment agency,
    • community development and renewal agency,
    • private-sector entity,
    • nonprofit entity,
    • federal matching grant, or 
    • county or municipality general fund,and that equals:
    • a 10% match for a county of the sixth class,
    • a 20% match for a county of the fifth class,
    • a 30% match for a county of the fourth class, or
    • a 40% match for a county of the third class.

    For a municipality in any rural county classification—including those within second-class counties, the funding match must equal:

    • a 10% match for a town,
    • a 20% match for a municipality of the fifth class,
    • a 30% match for a municipality of the fourth class, or
    • a 40% match for a municipality of the third class.

    Application

    A community may apply for the Rural Communities Opportunity Grant (RCOG) during a designated period of time. Access to the application portal is available below. If you are a new user to this portal, please select the new user option to create an account and provide your contact information.

    Apply now