At the Business Expansion and Retention (BEAR) general board meeting on Dec. 3, the Southeastern Utah Association of Local Governments (SEUALG) will be presenting on all of the programs and services that are offered at the Association of Local Governments (AOG).
Jade Powell of SEUALG stated that the programs are funded through federal and state grants to administer the services throughout all of Southeastern Utah. SEUALG is one of seven AOGs in Utah covering Carbon, Emery, Grand and San Juan counties.
Powell continued by explaining that the AOG was established in 1969 for two main reasons. The first reason was to be a designated development district under the Economic Development Administration and to assist in administering federal economic development funding and grants.
The second reason was to manage and administer federal block grants through the region, such as the Community Development Block Grant, Social Services Block Grant and the Community Services Block Grant. With the AOG managing the block grants, administration and overhead costs were kept low and more funding was able to be obtained by the region for projects and services.
Powell explained that SEUALG continues to manage the blocks grants and have pulled in more state and federal services, such as homeless prevention, rapid rehousing, housing programs for low to moderate income families, incoming tax filing for said families, weatherization for those in need and many aging services for the older population.
“Also, the SEUALG has an employee that is shared by Carbon and Emery counties to manage the senior centers in the two-county region. This is a good example of the regional approach of the SEUALG as by having our employee oversee the senior centers, it has helped save the two counties approximately $50,000 per county just in administration and overhead costs in their budgets,” Powell remarked.
SEUALG additionally provides technical planning assistance to counties and communities in regard to development such as land use ordinances, general plans and the like. SEUALG also focuses on economic development such as strategic planning, implementation, grant writing and more.
Due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, there will be no public gathering of this meeting and all are asked to attending virtually. The Zoom link for this meeting is https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85262939769 and the meeting will begin at 8 a.m.