Five County News
| 2022-04-27 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.
There are currently three open
positions at the Five County Association of Governments.
The Five County
Association of Governments, an equal opportunity employer, is looking for
a Weatherization Technician to join their Weatherization Program. The
Association is also looking for a Community Action Program Coordinator,
as well as a Community Action Intern.
Click HERE to go to our Human Resources page to view the complete job announcements and position descriptions, application deadlines, as well as specific instructions on how to apply, for these open positions.
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 update
to the regional Multi-jurisdictional Natural Hazard
Mitigation Plan is being developed by the Five County
Association of Governments' staff in collaboration
with all of the cities and towns, and the five
counties in this region. The Plan update will include 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 is being done through a grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). As has been the case with the current plan (that is being updated) FEMA completed a review of the current Plan and approved it in 2017. The current 5-year Plan is valid until early 2022. This new Plan update will become effective once completed, approved by FEMA and adopted by the jurisdictions in this region. The updated Plan, once adopted will be valid from early 2022 through 2027. If there are any questions on the Plan update, please contact Ms. Alyssa Gamble, Community Planner, at (435) 673-3548 ext. 117, or via e-mail to agamble@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.
| ||||||||||
| Click Here for more Info on what the Five County AOG is about. |
