County awards $661,500 in grants to local nonprofits

Four recipients help to strengthen and diversify the local economy

PRESS RELEASE
February 6, 2025

Garfield County has approved more than $661,000 in grants to four local nonprofit organizations providing vital services for area residents and working to strengthen the local economy. Recipients of the grants included Garfield Clean Energy (GCE), Journey Home Animal Care Center (JHACC), Colorado River Board of Cooperative (BOCES), and COVENTURE.

The grants, which are designed to bolster both community and economic development in Garfield County, come from the county’s oil and gas mitigation and nonprofit discretionary funds.

GCE helps community save on energy bills

The county reaffirmed its membership in GCE, awarding the nonprofit $315,000 for its continued efforts to save residents, businesses, and governments money on energy bills. The county has partnered with GCE since the government collaborate was formed in 2012.

Created through an intergovernmental agreement, GCE consists of nine local governments, as well as Colorado Mountain College, and the Roaring Fork Transportation Authority (RFTA), with Garfield County Libraries and Holy Cross Energy having joined on as affiliate members.

GCE noted that through its ReEnergize Garfield County program, more than $322,000 has been invested in energy rebates between 2022 and ’24, helping save households $143,339 on energy bills. The energy-saving rebate program is designed for households in Garfield County earning up to 150 percent of median income.

GCE has helped to increase the amount of solar utilized on government and institutional buildings in Garfield County, grown the number of community arrays, and connected residences and businesses with solar panels, all of which generates 27.9 megawatts of electricity.

The priorities of GCE are really focused on directly benefitting the community and achieving tangible results, said Morgan Hill, associate director of Clean Energy Economy for the Region (CLEER), which contracts with GCE to provide services and programs. “We focus on saving residences, businesses, and our member governments money on their energy bills. This helps stimulate the economy; when folks have more money in their pockets, they can spend it on other things beside their energy bills. … We also want to improve the quality of life for everybody in the community.”

Since its inception, GCE has saved the community $2.1 million in energy bills, Hill added. The grant was approved unanimously by the Board of County Commissioners, 3-0, with the money coming from the county’s oil and gas energy mitigation fund.

For me, the importance of this is what we can give back to our citizens, said Commissioner Tom Jankovsky. ReEnergize goes back to individuals who may be struggling in our community to pay the bills, put food on the table, and cover the rent.

BOCES program participation is EPIC

The county awarded BOCES a $99,000 nonprofit discretionary grant for its Educational Pathways to Innovative Careers (EPIC) program. BOCES helps high school students connect with local companies and professionals to carve out a career path.

Dr. Ken Haptonstall, executive director of Colorado River BOCES, told the board that interest in the program has skyrocketed in the past couple years. He said that the goal is to get kids hands-on experience in their chosen fields with professionals, carving out a path to an internship, trade school, or directly to a job.

Three years ago, we had less than 100 kids involved in our EPIC program. Today, I’m happy to announce that we’re over 1,600 kids, Haptonstall told the board. Primarily, EPIC is focused on career technical education (CTE), we have worked to support industries in the region that actually pay enough for someone to live here. We’ve focused on autos, aviation, construction, and a lot of trades that we know are in dire need of a workforce, which is tough to find.

Haptonstall said while BOCES has an office in Parachute, its staff spends 90 percent of its time on the road, in the schools, and talking to industry professionals.

The board approved the request from its discretionary grant fund unanimously, 3-0.

“There’s a big gap there and you guys are helping to fill it,” said Commissioner Mike Samson. “Even when I was teaching, kids would tell me they didn’t have money to go to college. A lot of them I steered into the military. There’s this notion that everybody needs to go to college and that is not a truism. You can earn a very good job learning a needed skill in a profession that you can succeed in. If you want to go to college, that’s great, but it’s not necessary.”

Journey Home seeing increased need

Garfield County also approved a grant for $227,700 to the Journey Home Animal Care Center in Rifle toward its services with stray animals from throughout the community.

According to its presentation, JHACC spayed or neutered 1,208 animals, vaccinated 1,718 animals, and provided nearly 5,400 pounds of pet food to homes in need in 2024. In addition, the nonprofit reunited 207 stray animals with their owners, and found homes for another 944 pets, while taking in 1,274 animals.

Heather Grant, JHACC executive director, told the board that they’re seeing greater numbers of stray animals coming to the care center, especially kittens.

Our kitten numbers were back to 2016-’17 levels, she said. We had more kittens than we’ve had in the past two or three previous years. We are also definitely seeing an uptick on dogs and puppies. Currently, we have 27 puppies in our shelter, and they are from this area, none of them were transferred in. We went many years without seeing any puppies from this area. If somebody wanted a puppy, we had to work very hard to help them find one.

Grant added that they’re seeing increased requests for spaying and neutering, as well as vaccines and behavioral services.

We had 410 animals that required beyond basic care, she said. Basic care is spay/neuter, vaccine, and cleaning, food, care, and daily services. The cost for basic care on average is $698 per animal. It does take a lot to provide the basic services for them.

The grant, which came from the county’s nonprofit discretionary fund, was approved unanimously, 3-0.

We don’t have animal control in unincorporated Garfield County, so both Journey Home and CARE provide a crucial role, added Commissioner Jankovsky.

COVENTURE helps businesses flourish

The county approved a $19,800 grant for Carbondale-based COVENTURE toward its economic development efforts in the area. Executive Director Michael Lowe told the board that the nonprofit originated eight years ago as an economic development engine serving Aspen to Parachute. It is focused on economic resiliency (talent retention and economic diversification), following the hard lessons learned from the Great Recession of 2008-’09, he said.

After ’08-’09, we lost a lot of construction jobs, Lowe said. This community, you know better than I, is founded on tourism and construction as primary industries. I set out with a handful of partners to create the public-private partnership COVENTURE to try and diversify the economy and attract talent.

Lowe said that more than 60 businesses have gone through the nonprofit’s accelerator program and roughly 2,000 participants benefit from the various programs the business incubator offers.

Of those 60 graduates of our accelerator program, 48 of those businesses are still here employing well over 400 employees, he said. This includes Revel Bikes, based out of Carbondale, employing 38 people and they’ve been ranked the top mountain bike company in the United States for the last four years. Also, MountainFLOW eco-wax, which is a plant-based ski wax company that employs seven people and … just crossed the $2 million (sales) mark last year. We feel quite proud of the diversification.

Lowe added that COVENTURE worked with the Greater Colorado Venture Fund and West Slope Angels to help raise $4 million for a new med-tech startup, Klim-Loc Medical, which is also based in Carbondale.

Their goal is to move away from needles, so they have an innovative needleless medical device with sensor technology, he said. It’s very exciting. … We’ve helped bring technology and outdoor gear manufacturing here and continue to work with community partners including BOCES to help solve problems.

The nonprofit discretionary grant was approved unanimously, 3-0.