This Week's Wins
Here are some things worth celebrating this week at Foothills Regional Commission and in our region!
- Danna Stansbury officially took the helm this week as Foothills Regional Commission’s new executive director. We’re so glad to have her here and count this as a big win for both Foothills and our region!
- The City of Saluda and the Town of Old Fort are among 30 communities across North Carolina that have been awarded grants through the Rural Transformation Grant Fund, a new source of support for rural economic development projects in the state that is funded by the federal American Rescue Plan.
Saluda's allotment of $170,000 comes in the Community Enhancements Category, which provides grants to local governments to smooth the way for economic development opportunities. The $900,000 going to Old Fort is in the category of Downtown Revitalization, which supports downtown development initiatives that help grow and leverage a community’s commercial core into an asset for economic growth and prosperity. You can read the state's press release on the awards here.
- Check out the flyer below for a FRC Workforce Development win!
Got a "win" for the region or FRC that you'd like to see celebrated? Send it to Mackenzie Wicker at mwicker@foothillsregion.org to have it included in our next newsletter.
|
|
ARC Releases FY23 Economic Status Designations
Every year, the Appalachian Regional Commission uses an index-based county economic classification system to identify and monitor the economic status of Appalachia's 423 counties. These designations help ARC determine match rates for projects and target investments to distressed areas.
ARC released its fiscal year 2023 designations last week and counties in the Foothills region saw the following changes from their FY22 designations:
- Cleveland County continues to be designated At-Risk, with its number of distressed areas increasing from six to nine in the past year.
- McDowell County remained in the Transitional category, with its number of distressed areas increasing from zero to three.
- Polk County remained in the Transitional category, with zero distressed areas—the same number as last year.
- Rutherford County continues to be designated At-Risk, with its number of distressed areas increasing from two to three.
While the number of distressed counties in the overall ARC region only increased by one, 14 counties moved from transitional to at-risk, likely due to negative impacts from the COVID crisis. Across the region for FY23:
- 82 counties are classified as Distressed
- 109 are classified as At-Risk
- 218 are classified as Transitional
- 10 are classified as Competitive
- 4 are classified as Attainment
Read more about ARC's Economic Status Designations here.
|
|
Funding Opportunity: Level 2 Electric Vehicle Workplace Charging Stations
The North Carolina Division of Air Quality will soon take applications from businesses, government agencies and nonprofits that want grant money to install Level 2 electric vehicle charging stations for their workplaces.
Businesses must have at least five employees or have at least one electric vehicle in its fleet. The grant will cover 60% of the charging station up to $25,000. The application window will open on July 25.
This is not a competitive grant – the money will be distributed on a first-come, first-served basis for eligible businesses until the program runs out of funds. More details on the program are available here.
|
|
Good Read: Property Tax FAQs
The UNC School of Government's Coates' Canons NC Local Government Law blog has a new post that answers four frequently asked questions about property taxes, including:
- Are we required to remove information relating to law enforcement officers from our county tax website?
- Can we tax homes that are being used as Airbnb’s at a higher rate than other homes?
- ABC, Inc. went out of business and now XYZ, Inc. is using ABC’s business personal property. Can we go after XYZ for old taxes on that personal property?
- We’ve sent a tax file to our attorney to start the foreclosure process. Can we require the taxpayer to pay those attorney fees?
If any or all of these pique your interest, you can check out the blog post here.
|
|
Funding Opportunity: Increasing Meat Production & Capacity
The N.C. Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services has opened the application period for the fourth phase of its Increasing Meat Production, Efficiency and Capacity (IMPEC) grant program, which is geared to independent state meat and seafood processing facilities. This program aims to support the food animal industry by increasing efficiency and capacity of local small-scale meat processing facilities that will benefit the livestock producers, processors and consumers to ensure an uninterrupted supply of local meat products.
In addition to increasing production, efficiency and/or capacity, projects can also include value-added processing. Project categories can include equipment and infrastructure, contractual/consultation, labor; training and retention, and other identified needs. Proposals can be for beef, pork, small ruminant, seafood and catfish processing facilities. Recipients must match $1 in funds or services for every $2 in grant funding.
More information, including the grant application and required forms, can be found here. Please note that grant proposals are due by close of business on Sept. 1, 2022.
|
|
Funding Opportunity: Next Round of Rural Transformation Grants
The next round of Rural Transformation Grant funding will open in September and close in November. The first round was a big success for a couple of municipalities in the Foothills region (see the "wins" above for details!) and we'd love to see more funding come to our communities.
You can read more about the program here. If you have a project for consideration, please call Liz Parham directly at (919) 805-2067 or email lparham@commerce.nc.gov to discuss it.
|
|
Upcoming Events
- LeverageNC Webinars - Register and see all free webinars here. Upcoming ones include:
- July 13, 10 a.m. - New Data Insights on Main Street Resiliency and Recovery
- July 27, 10 a.m. - Destination Creation in Any Size Community: One Business at a Time
- Strategic Planning Framework for Public Sector Organizations - July 12 in Atlantic Beach. $125. Register and learn more here.
- Rutherfordton Workforce/Affordable Housing Info Session - July 15, 11:45 a.m.-1 p.m. at Rutherfordton Clubhouse, 241 Clubhouse Drive. Free lunch will be provided. For potential buyers of homes in the new Creekwood Meadows Subdivision and others working to help secure housing for those who need it. RSVP required by July 10 by emailing terry@gotothehub.org.
- Cash Management and Investment of Public Funds - July 12-28, 9 a.m.-12:30 p.m. via Zoom. Presented by the UNC School of Government. $525 fee. Intermediate class for finance officers, treasurers and/or staff with cash management responsibilities. More info and registration here.
- 2022 NADO National Regional Transportation Conference - July 19-21 in Kansas City, MO. Register and learn more here.
- Essentials of Municipal Government - July 25-27 via Zoom. Presented by UNC School of Government. Learn more and register here.
- Telling Your Story: Using Evaluation and Other Tools to Share Your Organization’s Impact - July 28 in Sylva OR Aug. 4 in Marion. Hosted by Resourceful Communities. Registration is limited and required by July 21. More info here.
- Promising Practices of Outdoor Recreation Economies - Aug. 3, 12-1 p.m. Free webinar. Registration required. Details here.
- Appalachian Gateway Communities Initiative: Providing Tools for Tourism - For towns bordering publicly-owned lands. More info here.
- July 14, 10-11 a.m. - Informational webinar. Register here.
- Oct. 25-27 in Lake Junaluska - Three-day workshop. Letters of interest due by July 25 here. Final applications due Aug. 22.
- Municipal & County Government Administration - 32 half-day Zoom sessions in October 2022-May 2023 by the School of Gov. Applications are due July 15 at 5 p.m. More information is available here.
- Appalachian Regional Commission 2022 Conference - ARC will cohost One Appalachia: Connection & Collaboration with the state of Maryland Oct. 17-19 at the Rocky Gap Resort in Flintstone, Maryland. More information is available here.
|
|
|
|
|
