New Details About Rim Fire Resilience Money
Sonora, CA — Tuolumne County leaders learned more about the federal National Resilience Competition money that will be coming to fund post Rim Fire projects.
The Rim Fire application requested around $117-million from the HUD grant program, but only $70-million was approved by federal officials.
The funding is being broken down into three major categories. At today’s board of supervisors meeting, County Administrator Craig Pedro stated that $40-million was requested for “Forest and Watershed Health,” but only $28.6-million will be allocated. The lead agency in charge of overseeing the use of the money will be the Sierra Nevada Conservancy, and partners will include CAL Fire, the US Forest Service and the California Conservation Corp.
$55-million was requested to build Community Resilience Centers in both Groveland and Tuolumne. However, $19.8-million was approved, so only one of the facilities will be constructed. Tuolumne County is the lead agency to oversee the planning, and must decide which is the more beneficial project. Additional agency partners include Columbia College, the California Conservation Corp., Tuolumne County Economic Development Authority and the US Forest Service.
$22-million was requested to build a Biomass Facility and Wood Products Campus, and the full allocation was approved by HUD. The Sierra Nevada Conservancy and CalEPA will be in charge of the planning, and the agency partners include Tuolumne County and the US Forest Service.
More information should be known later this month as “launch” events are being organized in both Sacramento and Tuolumne County.
The federal grant funding is designed to help communities bounce back from national disasters, and become more resilient against future disasters.
