The Colorado River Valley Economic Development Partnership has received a $240,000 grant from the Colorado Energy Office. The group plans to use the grant to fund a staff position dedicated to economic diversification around clean energy.
The partnership is made up of representatives from New Castle, Silt, Rifle, and Parachute/Battlement Mesa, with the mission of building a more resilient economy, including better jobs for workers close to where they live.
Alicia Gresley is the partnership’s director. She's also a member of Rifle's city council, but she doesn't represent council in this capacity.
She said they want to get data specifically on Western Garfield County to understand which are the best opportunities for diversifying the economy and what businesses and workers want.
“There's a lot of aspects to reducing use of energy, fossil fuels, greenhouse gasses,” she said. “And it's really going to go towards just helping us to build foundations so that we can find out which projects are relevant and impactful in that area.”
The grant-funded position will also include an emphasis on workforce training to make sure the local economy benefits from a transition away from fossil fuels. Gresley said the study will also try to engage with existing businesses and workers in the region.
“Specific data around, how can we diversify our economy, with not only current energy opportunities and alternative energy opportunities, but other industries as well?” she said. “So that's part of it. Also, labor statistics, commuting statistics, (and) business needs.”
Gresley said the partnership’s goal is to function as a hub of information, and this grant would help connect local businesses to clean energy resources.
She said a big piece of the partnership’s mission is to provide workers in western Garfield County better jobs closer to home, which, in theory, would also reduce greenhouse gas emissions by having fewer cars on the road.
Other areas that got some of the $1.9 million dollars from the CEO for local climate projects include Chaffee County and the city of Salida, Lake County, and the city of Pueblo and Pueblo County. CEO got the funds from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant program.
The grant will be crucial to the CRVEDP’s mission over the next three years. Gresley said the partnership is planning to do more surveys and outreach to local businesses and workers on topics other than clean energy.
“Individually, each municipality, or area, doesn't have the population or the revenue or the the capacity, to be frank, to really fulfill this need for what is economic development in our rural areas,” she said. “But as a collaboration, we can all lean on each other and look at what's best. A ‘rising tide lifts all boats’ type of concept.”
Some other topics they’re hoping to work on include affordable and attainable housing, cost of living, and workforce recruiting and retention.
