Five County News
| 2022-09-23 what the Five County AOG is about. | |||||||||
This Report document
is the Five County Association of Governments' contribution
to the 2022 Utah Annual Action Plan assembled by the State
of Utah’s Housing and Community Development office, which reports
on Community Development Block Grant activities statewide.The Five County Report for the 2022 Utah Annual Action Plan describes activities completed in the past year and offers the region an opportunity to review and update goals year to year. The progress made in the last year is complemented by an understanding of the expected funds for the upcoming fiscal year and a discussion of the projects to be rated and ranked in the coming year. For a much more detailed description of the Annual Action Plan process and to view the final document, please use the link directly below. The public was given an opportunity to comment on the draft document and participate in a public hearing. The final draft Report document was presented to the Five County AOG Steering Committee at their meeting on March 9, 2022, and they approved the Report Document. Click HERE to go to the Annual Action Plan webpage.
Each year the Five County Association
of Governments has an independent audit
of our organization conducted by a qualified public
auditing firm. The FY2021 Audit was completed by the Certified Public Accounting firm of Hafen|Buckner of St. George City, Utah and the report was presented to our governing body, the Steering Committee, for acceptance, which they did at their meeting on February 9, 2022. The FY2021 Audit Report is available for public review as a PDF scanned copy of by clicking on THIS LINK.
The Utah Counties Indemnity Pool (UCIP) is our Association's
"insurer". A Fraud Tip Hotline has been
established by UCIP, in cooperation with Lighthouse Services,
LLC. This service has been set up for UCIP members, such
as the Five County Association of Governments, in order
to provide their staff and citizens with easy access to report
fraud, and keep government open and honest.Fraud tips can be submitted four ways: Website: www.lighthouse-services.com/uciputah (available in English or Spanish) Toll-Free Telephone: • English – (877) 410-0007 • Spanish – (800) 216-1288 E-mail: reports@lighthouse-services.com (must include our Association's name with report) Fax: (215) 689-3885 (must include our Association's name with report)
The Home Energy Assistance Target
program, known as H.E.A.T., is a federally-funded
energy assistance program. The goal of the program
is to assist eligible individuals and families meet
the higher costs of energy during the winter and summer.
The program typically runs from November 1 through
September 30. The Five County HEAT Program office
in St. George provides assistance throughout the year
(heating and cooling) for eligible clients in eligible
areas. Because H.E.A.T. provides assistance ONCE every program
season, it is important that families and individuals do
all they can to keep their utility bills current and to conserve
energy.Click HERE to go to the HEAT Program web page. The
HEAT office in St. George
is located at 1664 South Dixie Drive, Unit L-104.
It is located in the same building unit as, and
in between of, Sienna Pharmacy and the Park Law
Firm. Click HERE for a Map to
the St. George location.
The office in Cedar City is loacted at 2069 N. Main
Street, Suite L103, Cedar City, Utah.
A provision from the tax cut legislation
passed by by Congress in
2017 may have positive economic impacts
in southwestern Utah, with investors incentivized
to develop businesses in some of the area’s
lowest-income neighborhoods. Large swaths
of Washington, Iron, Beaver and Garfield counties
are among the places across Utah identified this summer
as federally-recognized “Opportunity Zones”
— areas designated where investors
can avoid some taxes in exchange for funding
new development.
The hope is that development creates jobs, reduces poverty and sets the groundwork for further economic growth in areas largely being left behind by the state's overall job growth. This region, including even fast-growing Washington County, still ranks overall as a distressed regional economy, based on federal guidelines, thanks to low wages and a limited mix of businesses. Click HERE to go to view a PDF map of this region's Opportunity Zone areas. Click HERE to go to a web page with an interactive map of the nation that you can view all Opportunity Zones.
A updated regional Multi-jurisdictional
Natural Hazard Pre-disaster Mitigation Plan was developed
by the Five County Association of Governments'
staff in collaboration with all of the cities and
towns, the five counties in this region, as well as the Paiute
Indian Tribe of Utah. The Plan update includes information
regarding the type, location and extent potential and
regularly occurring hazards in the Five County
area and also includes information on previous occurrences
of hazard events and the likelihood of a future natural
hazard events. This update was done through a grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Once adopted as a "guidance document" by each entity, the 5-year plan will be valid for that entity until 2027. If there are any questions on the Plan update, please contact Mr. Nate Wiberg, Senior Planner, at (435) 673-3548 ext. 105, or via e-mail to nwiberg@fivecounty.utah.gov Click on this link: https://hazardmitigationplan.org to go to the special web site developed to present the plan to the cities, towns, counties and the public.
The popular Community
Services Resource Directory for southwestern
Utah is available. The Directory, published
with Community Services Block Grant funding, is distributed
through the Community Action Partnership of the
Five County Association of Governments. While the
Directory is targeted primarily to the under served
population, many services apply to all levels of income
and need. The Directory is available to view online or may
be purchased. To view the Directory, please visit the H.E.A.T. and Community Action website at this link: http://fivecountycap.wordpress.com
The updated Comprehensive
Economic Development Strategy (CEDS) document for the
Five County Association of Governments
economic development region was submitted to U.S. Department of Commerce, Economic Development
Administration Denver Region and was approved
by that federal agency. For more information on the CEDS
document, please contact Bryan Thiriot,
Executive Director, Five County Association
of Governments, via e-mail: bthiriot@fivecounty.utah.gov
or by telephone: (435) 673-3548.
The Five County Association of Governments
has a microloan fund. The
purpose of this fund is to create permanent, long-term
jobs within the southwestern region of Utah
by providing needed financing to qualified businesses
for eligible activities. Loans made through
the fund are intended to help when commercial financing
proves unreachable. Funds loaned at interest are repaid into
the program and recycled to other businesses, thus allowing
an on-going job creation program. Funds are available
in Beaver, Garfield, Iron, Kane and Washington County, Utah.
The Southwest Utah Microloan Program, established by the Five County Association of Governments, focuses on loans of $50,000 or less with most being $25,000 or less. The importance of these loans lies in their ability to offset the difficulty that businesses experience in receiving traditional bank financing. To
find out more about the
loan fund, please contact Gary Zabriskie,
Director of Community and Economic Development
at: gzabriskie@fivecounty.utah.gov , or
phone (435) 673-3548 ext.
126
As required
by Utah Code the Five County Association
of Governments publishes all of its
public meetings on the "Utah Public Meeting Notice"
(UPMN) web site.
You can search for
our meetings by date or subject
keyword. To locate all of the
meeting announcement postings published on the
UPMN site by the Five County Association of
Governments you can use this link and use the "Advanced Search"
tab. You will need to
type in the word five into the "Entity" box, highlight
the "Five County Association of Governments" link that comes up, select
a date range you want to view and then click on the "Submit" button. It
will then show all upcoming
meetings scheduled by the Five County AOG
in the date range you selected.
Alternatively, you
can use this LINK, choose to Find a Notice, and
select "Associations
of Governments" for Government type, choose
"Five County Association
of Governments" for
the Entity, and you will see the Public Body
list with links to each of them.
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