Five County News
| 2018-09-14 what the FCAOG is all about. | |||||||||
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.
 The next meeting of the Dixie
Metropolitan Planning Organization's policy body, known as
the Dixie Transportation Executive
Council (DTEC), will be held on
Wednesday, September 19, 2018.
The DTEC meeting will begin at 12:00 noon in the Washington County Administration Building, in the downstairs conference room; 197 East Tabernacle Street; St. George, Utah. This meeting is open to the public. Click HERE to view the DTEC meeting Agenda, and the previous meeting's draft minutes, as posted on the Utah Public Meeting Notice website. Click HERE
to visit the Dixie MPO website.
 Five
times each year the Five County
Association of Governments publishes a widely circulated and
informative newsletter entitled "FIVE COUNTY NEWS FROM
'R' VIEW". The newsletter is not published during
July-August.The latest edition, the MAY-JUNE 2018 EDITION, has been mailed out to county, city and town leaders and other individuals in our five county region, as well as to other regional, state and federal agencies. You can also conveniently view the newsletter on this web site as a printable PDF file. Click HERE
to go to the Association's newsletter page to view and/or download the
latest edition of the newsletter. You can also view/print all
past editions of the Association's newsletters on that same page.
 The Five County Association of
Governments (FCAOG) completed a draft document entitled "Five County Consolidated Plan - One Year
Action Plan July 1, 2018 -June 30, 2019". The Plan details
this region's community development and housing needs and priorities,
as well as strategies to meet those needs and priorities. A public hearing on the aforementioned Consolidated Plan document was held in conjunction with the FCAOG Steering Committee on Wednesday, February 14, 2018 in Kanab, UT. A 30 daypublic comment period commenced on January 29, 2018 and ended on February 28, 2018. The Plan was then presented to our governing body, the Steering Committee, at its March 14, 2018 meeting for their approval. At that time, the Plan was adopted by them. The Plan can also be viewed, as a PDF file, on this web site using this link: http://www.fivecounty.utah.gov/programs/community/consolidated.php
 Each year
the Five
County
Association of Governments has an independent audit of our organization
conducted by a qualified public auditing firm. The FY2017 Audit
was just completed and the report presented to our governing body, the
Steering Committee, for acceptance. The FY2017 Audit Report is available for public review as a PDF scanned copy of by clicking on THIS LINK.
 A regional
Multi-jurisdictional Natural Hazard Mitigation Plan was developed by
the
Five County Association of Governments' staff in collaboration with all
of the cities and the five counties, and almost all of the towns in
this region. The Plan contains information regarding
the type, location and extent of eight regularly occurring hazards in
the Five County area and includes information on previous occurrences
of hazard events and the likelihood of a future hazard event. The
natural hazards identified in this plan are: wildfire, flood,
landslide, drought, severe weather, problem soils, earthquake and radon
gas.FEMA completed a review of the Plan and has approved the Plan, placing it in what is called "Approved Pending Adoption" status. What is now needed is for all of the jurisdictions, who participated in the development of the Plan, to formally adopt the Plan by resolution. Association staff has sent out information on the Plan to all participating jurisdictions including how to adopt it. If there are any questions on the Plan and its adoption by your jurisdiction, contact Nate Wiberg, Five County Community 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 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 Revolving Loan Fund. The purpose of the Revolving
Loan Fund (RLF) is to create permanent, long-term jobs within the
southwestern region of Utah by providing gap financing to qualified
businesses for eligible activities. Loans made through the
Revolving Loan Fund are intended to help bridge the gap created by
shortfalls in commercial financing. Funds 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 Microloan Program focuses on loans of $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. If a candidate needs more than $25,000 they are encouraged to apply through the regular Five County Revolving Loan Fund which can provide gap financing in conjunction with a primary commercial lender. We can fund up to 50% of a project with up to $200,000 of RLF participation. To
find out more about these two loan funds, visit our separate web
site: http://www.southernutahloans.com
 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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