| OCR Text |
Show Five-County Group Studies Funds Use years. The funds were discovered during a TiUe XX budget reconciliation recon-ciliation process. Four agencies have made application for the unallocated monies, Williams said, and the Human Services Council is recommending that $14,000 be granted to Family Life Services to be used for the handicapped with the other three applications to be considered in January. Williams stated that he had received a letter from Garfield County requesting that Commissioner Com-missioner Del LeFevre be appointed to serve on the Cedar City BLM District Advisory Council to fill the position of Renewable Resources that is presently open. He said that he would recommend LeFevre since Garfield County currently does not have any representation on that board. The Steering Committee voted to support Commissioner LeFevre for the position. The committee approved travel to the National Association of Development Organizations in New Orleans in Nov. for Williams. Attending the Steering Committee meeting from Garfield County were, in addition to Middleton, Torgerson and LeFevre, were Commissioner Guy Thompson and Garfield County Schools Representative Margaret Shakespear. A wary Five County Association of Governments Steering Committee took a cautious approach to a proposal to use Community Development Block Grant funds for economic development purposes. The funds would be allocated to a revolving loan fund which would be matched by additional economic development dollars for loans to expand business and industry. Vaughn McDonald, director of community and economic development for FCAOG stated that the proposed advantages of such a loan fund lie in its flexibility and in local control. He said that the interest in-terest and principle from the loan fund is then returned to a revolving loan fund which can be used for additional loans. Committee members, however, did not appear to accept the concept with Panguitch Mayor Jon Torgerson saying he was impressed with the program but concerned about the time element involved. Both Commissioners Cal Johnson, Kane County and Lou Tong, Iron County stated they could foresee problems and Russell Wilson, Washington County schools representative said he thought there , could be a possible conflict of interest. in-terest. Commissioner Chad Johnson, Beaver County said he felt the Steering Committee should not make the decision and that it should be made by a separate board which would not have the conflicts of interest in-terest that the committee has. Commissioner Tong said that the program might have divisive effect on the committee which has worked cohesively in the past months. Kane County schools representative represen-tative Karen Alvey said that she felt such a program needed looking at if the area expects to compete for business. . McDonald discussed the revisions of the previous year's criteria for rating, CDBG applications. Com-' mittee members were given copies of the CDBG Methodology and asked to submit their comments at the committee's next meeting. Committee Com-mittee members also received copies of the overall economic Development Plan for the Five County area which was recently completed. Representing the Bureau of Land Management were Dennis Curtis, Jerry Meredith, David Everett and George Peternel. They presented a new concept to the Five County group proposing that the FCAOG work with the BLM and other agencies on a recreational land use study. Under the proposal, counties would work with federal and state land owners at the planning stages and help determine how recreational development could benefit all parties. They stated that Southern Utah should be made a destination point for tourists and not just a place to pass through. They noted that a proposal was a new approach by the federal government which they hoped would be supported locally. Commissioner Cal Johnson stated that the planning would need to include representatives of private enterprise. The committee, on a motion by Garfield County Commissioner George Middleton, voted to support the concept and also voted to have the FCAOG head a cooperative comprehensive recreational land use study of southern Utah. John Williams, executive director of FCAOG, stated that $24,000 remains unallocated from previous |
