Hi everyone!
At last, we are making some progress with the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency towards learning the outcome of our application for a grant to support our initiative to reduce non-point source pollution and reducing flooding.
Just to recap. The 319 Grant Application is a process where communities can apply for financial support to the state to access federal funds that have been set aside for this purpose, largely generated from fines that have been levied on companies that pollute our waterways, and in particular, to be used for the purpose of reducing pollution going back in our waterways. This year, the focus area is Northern Illinois and our particular area.
This week we received the great news that our request for funding has been selected by the IL EPA as a winning grant application and has now been sent for funding confirmation. One common question I hear is, “How safe are the funds, given that our state is not in a strong financial position?” The answer, I believe, is that these funds are very safe, given that they are federal funds, and have been set aside for this purpose. But note: we cannot celebrate yet. All of the communication goes to great lengths to remind us that we will not be deemed to be successful until we receive our award letter.
So what are the next steps? Firstly, the village has been given a draft contract to review and comment on. This is in anticipation of the award letter. Also, we have been requested to submit a very detailed budget, in a standard Illinois format, for their review. Both of these are ongoing as I write this report. We have also been given access to a project manager at IL IPA to support us. This is all very promising and we should be cautiously optimistic that a successful outcome may be close.
In the meantime, the community is really getting behind this initiative. I have been overwhelmed by the requests for more information and the willingness to record all hours spent on this project. Just the very fact that you are reading this article is contributing to our side of the funding requirement and you will see a theme throughout the summer with Eco Day and July 4th being particular focus. Although our efforts now cannot count towards the final grant 319 match, the clock on that starts when the award is made, and runs for 3 years. We still need to log $10,000 of value to match the award made by Lake County. I am happy to say that by the time you read this, we will have achieved that target, allowing us to focus all of our efforts on the IL EPA value matching.
I am also amazed how many people are installing rain gardens on their own property. Part of this initiative is to raise awareness within Tower Lakes to the positive benefits of rain gardens to capture and clean any runoff waters. Steve Burgoon recently came across a great article from Washington State where local communities gathered together to help protect the waters of Puget Sound by building 12,000 rain gardens. While we may not be able to hit 12,000, we can certainly work together to capture runoff pollution in all of our homes. Please check out this article.
Thank you for all your support! The dream moved closer to reality this week.
Best regards
Andy Hay
Project Manager
Tower Lakes Rain Garden Initiative