During the Carbon County Commission meeting on March 3, Tourism Specialist Tina Henrie spoke with the commissioners on an Utah Division and Recreational Fiscal Incentive Grant (FIG) agreement.
Henrie began by telling the commissioners that she became aware of the grant when she was a part of the Big Ride Utah previously. After learning more about the Fiscal Incentive Grant, she saw it as an opportunity for the county. Through the grant, Henrie wishes to install trail counters to track the usage on the local trails.
The FIG is a quarterly grant that is open to city, county and federal agencies as well as non-profit organizations. The grant provides assistance to enhance, improve upon and sustain motorized recreation within the state. It was stated that the proposals tend to range from $20,000 to $100,000 and each applicant must offer matching funds.
There is a range of projects that the FIG is able to fund benefitting OHV recreation. It was stated that the funds may be spent on the construction, improvement, operation, acquisition or maintenance of publicly-owned or administered OHV facilities.
“We will use the funding to install four trail counters. Two in Nine Mile Canyon and two in the adjacent canyons, Dry and Cottonwood. With the increase in OHV recreation, we want to monitor the traffic in those canyons so that we can better determine the needs,” stated Henrie.
With the information that is gathered through these counters, Henrie remarked that they will be able to plan for maintenance and determine whether or not additional trails are needed. This is the first time that the county has applied for the FIG and they received just over $3,000, with the county’s match being 31%.
Commissioner Casey Hopes then stated that he believes that receiving the grant and installing the counters is a great opportunity for the county to understand visitors better and determine how often they are visiting. He remarked that this work will assist in marketing and targeting.