Community Project Funding
FY2023 Appropriations
Congressman Neguse is accepting applications for federal funding to be allocated to community projects for the fiscal year of 2023. Through this new Community Funding Project (CFP) program, members are able to request funding for up to 15 community projects within their district to receive federal funds.
FY 2023 Appropriations Community Project Funding Guide
The FY 2023 CPF submission window has now closed.
Please find the selected projects below:
Congressman Neguse has submitted funding requests for important community projects in CO-02 to the House Appropriations Committee.
Under guidelines issued by the Appropriations Committee, each Representative may request funding for up to 15 projects in their community for fiscal year 2023 – although only a handful may actually be funded. Projects are restricted to a limited number of federal funding streams, and only state and local governments and eligible non-profit entities are permitted to receive funding. Additional information on the reforms governing Community Project Funding is available here.
In compliance with House Rules and Committee requirements, Congressman Neguse has certified that he, his spouse, and his immediate family have no financial interest in any of the projects he has requested.
1) Subcommittee: Transportation, Housing and Urban Development
Project name: Lyons Emergency & Assistance Fund
Amount: $575,000
Recipient: Lyons Emergency & Assistance Fund, 432 5th Avenue, PO Box 324, Lyons, CO 80540
Explanation: LEAF, Lyons Emergency & Assistance Fund, is the human services nonprofit that provides a Food Pantry, Meals on Wheels, no-cost Mental Wellness & Addiction Recovery services, direct financial assistance/case management in the Greater Lyons area and surrounding mountain communities. They also led the charge for COVID vaccinations in our community, and are preparing to support wildfire mitigation efforts in the high-risk areas that encompass our community. LEAF needs a dedicated space from which to continue providing these vital human services in the Greater Lyons area and surrounding mountain communities where we work. LEAF has the opportunity to renovate an existing Town-owned warehouse from where it can provide all of our services. Additionally, LEAF will be able to add space for a community medical clinic, a civic staging area for use during emergencies such as a flood or wildfire, the ability to partner with local law enforcement to provide co-responder services, and the potential for short-term transitional housing. LEAF is the only human services agency working exclusively in the Greater Lyons area. It directly served over 20% of the population in 2021. Human services needs will grow as affordable housing is introduced in the community in 2023. Funding this modest proposal will ensure that human services remain available and accessible in our underserved community.
Letter:here
2) Subcommittee: Transportation, Housing and Urban Development
Project name: Town of Empire Water Infrastructure
Amount: $4,000,000
Recipient: Town of Empire, P.O. Box 100, 30 E. Park Avenue, Empire, CO 80438
Explanation: In mid-March of this year, the Town of Empire, Colorado experienced a water emergency in which residents and businesses had a critically low supply of clean, reliable water. Many had no water and were left to rely on bottled water and a centralized water tanker provided by the Town. Those who did have water were under a boil order put in place by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE). This dire situation was the result of several factors, including the freezing of Mad Creek, from which the Town collects most of its water, and several substantial leaks throughout the water distribution system. Most of the water infrastructure in the Town, including mains, fire hydrants, and valves, is nearly 80 years old, and it has now reached the point where replacement of this system is critical to the provision of safe, reliable water to everyone in the Town of Empire. The Town has made important progress towards ensuring the Town never has to experience an emergency that compares to what happened in March by securing an SRF loan to develop a new alluvium well and make upgrades to Mad Creek. However, the Town’s water supply will not be truly secure until the aging water distribution system is replaced. If funded, the Town of Empire will be able to construct improved infrastructure, in addition to the planned source water upgrades this year, which will provide the Town with a stable system for years to come.
Letter: here
3) Subcommittee: Transportation, Housing and Urban Development
Project name: Veterans Community Project Transitional Housing
Amount: $650,000
Recipient: Veterans Community Project, 1228 Main Street, Longmont, CO 80501
Explanation: Veterans Community Project seeks to build a tiny home transitional housing village and Village Community Center. When completed at the end of 2022, the VCP Village – Longmont will have 26 tiny homes and a 3,000 square foot Community Center to provide transitional housing, and intensive, individualized case management to Veterans and their families who are experiencing homelessness in Longmont and the surrounding Northern Colorado region. At the already operational VCP Village – Kansas City, after which the Longmont village is modeled, VCP has had an 85% success rate in permanently housing the Veteran residents after they complete the program, a success rate that is over double the rate of that of the national average for similar housing programs. The high permanent housing success rate of the VCP tiny village transition housing program is a credit to the proprietary, in-depth and specialized case management that VCP offers and is most effective for Veterans. The tiny homes are designed to provide the Veteran with privacy, a sense of security, and the ability to reintegrate at a comfortable pace. Each tiny home is 260 square feet (320 square feet for the four family homes) and features a bed, small kitchen, and a bathroom and is provided with the necessary everyday items needed for resident use. Each home is designed with Veterans' specific needs in mind.
Letter: here
4) Subcommittee: Transportation, Housing and Urban Development
Project name: Summit County Child Care Center
Amount: $4,000,000
Recipient: Summit County, Smith Ranch Road, Silverthorne, CO 80498
Explanation: A new childcare center will address the growing demand for childcare in Summit County, as current capacity does not meet the substantial unmet need. Currently, there is a waitlist of 559 children for childcare. The new center in Silverthorne is crucial to retain working families. Affordable childcare is key for families to be able to work and raise their children in Summit County. A recent study commissioned by Summit County states that the cost of center-based infant care is more than 40% higher in Colorado than nationally, while the cost of home-based infant care is nearly 30% higher than the national average. This price burden is exacerbated for Summit County residents, where the cost of living is among the highest in the state and the cost of childcare is often prohibitive on top of other living expenses, especially hugely expensive housing costs. This issue is causing many young families to leave Summit County. Providing affordable childcare for working families has been a major challenge worsened by growing demand, lack of capacity, and rising construction costs. Addressing this issue with a new child care center will have a major impact for working families in our rural resort community.
Letter: here
5) Subcommittee: Transportation, Housing and Urban Development
Project name: Eagle County Government Eagle Valley Trail
Amount: $2,000,000
Recipient: Eagle County, 28500 US Highway 6, Wolcott, CO 81632
Explanation: In 2018, Governor Hickenlooper visited Eagle County and shared his dream of a day when visitors can “arrive at Denver International Airport, and ride their bicycle all the way to Eagle, without ever going on the shoulder of a road.” This project will complete the last 12 miles of the Eagle Valley Trail. Once complete, the 63 mile paved trail will extend from the top of Vail Pass to Glenwood Canyon. The last 12 miles are in beautiful, but difficult mountain terrain. Construction activities will include a 200 foot long pedestrian bridge over the Eagle River, a tunnel crossing under US Highway 6, long retaining walls, and shifting US Highway 6 to squeeze past a new CDOT maintenance facility. This is a good use of funds because this trail will increase bicycle usage, positively impacting climate change and national carbon output, and increase recreation by residents and visitors of Eagle County. Also, in Eagle County’s rural community, multimodal transportation is an important part of getting the workforce to their place of employment and children to and from school. In the resort areas, parking is often unavailable and expensive, so allowing for bicycle commuting is a key component to the overall transportation plan.
Letter:here
6) Subcommittee: Transportation, Housing and Urban Development
Project name: City of Fort Collins Intersection Improvement
Amount: $1,870,000
Recipient: City of Fort Collins, College Avenue (U.S. 287) and Trilby Road in Fort Collins, CO 80525
Explanation: This is a safety and mobility improvement at a congested intersection located on US Highway 287 at the south end of Fort Collins. Traffic is increasing on this roadway due to residential growth and new manufacturing in the area. Additional turning lanes, new sidewalks, enhanced bus stops, ADA compliant ramps, and raised medians will improve safety for all users of the road. This shovel-ready project has Colorado Department of Transportation oversight, and previous federal grant awards through the North Front Range Metropolitan Planning Organization. The need and support for this project are high, and the requested grant funding would complete the needed construction funding for project completion in 2024.
Letter:here
7) Subcommittee: Transportation, Housing and Urban Development
Project name: Boulder County Sheriff Long Range Acoustical Device
Amount: $1,080,000
Recipient: Boulder County Sheriff, 5600 Flatiron Parkway, Boulder CO 80301
Explanation: Long Range Acoustical Device Hazards. The current emergency siren system within Boulder County is reaching or passed the service life of the equipment and needs replacement. In addition, the devices are extremely old technology and replacing them with the LRAD system increases the ability to alert and communicate with the community during times of extreme danger driving evacuations in a wildfire or acting in severe weather events.
Letter:here
8) Subcommittee: Transportation, Housing and Urban Development
Project name: Town of Granby Highway 40 Trail Connection
Amount: $1,325,000
Recipient: Town of Granby, 63331 US-40, Granby, CO 80446
Explanation: The purpose of the Highway 40 Trail Connection project is to complete a shared use pedestrian trail that would connect a number of neighborhoods, parks, other trails, retail shopping, and the only grocery store in the community. To complete the pedestrian trail there is approximately .75 miles of asphalt trail remaining. The current path does not make the final connections within the community and this request for funding would allow the Town of Granby to finish this much needed project. The trail will provide safe walking routes along Highway 40 for pedestrians and bikers, increase retail sales, and provide food security opportunities for those residents without vehicle transportation.
Letter: here
9) Subcommittee: Interior and Environment
Project name: Town of Wellington Water Infrastructure
Amount: $760,000
Recipient: Town of Wellington, 8225 Third Street, P.O. Box 127, Wellington, Colorado 80549
Explanation: The Town of Wellington must upgrade Viewpointe Lift Station, which serves as a vital component of the wastewater treatment process. Currently, this plant is broken down, requires constant maintenance, and poses safety hazards to its staff. The Viewpointe Lift Station will increase system efficiency, reduce wastewater odor to the surrounding neighborhoods, and eliminate any need for future pump stations in the surrounding area with the upgraded gravity-based control system. The Viewpointe Lift Station is a piece of the puzzle that enables the community to align with the State’s Water Plan. The Town of Wellington is developing a robust water efficiency and conservation plan this summer to engage its growing population. While water conservation creates resilient communities, it also has an unintended consequence of decreasing the flows in local sewer systems, which makes it difficult to move solids. The Viewpointe Lift Station will help the community move wastewater, while also allowing them to move forward with an aggressive water conservation plan which is good for Colorado.
Letter: here
Subcommittee: Commerce Justice Science
10) Project name: University of Colorado Boulder JILA
Amount: $2,000,000
Recipient: University of Colorado Boulder, 440 UCB, Boulder, CO 80309
Explanation: This request will fund the preliminary work necessary to replace JILA’s antiquated HVAC system. JILA scientists are conducting world leading research in laboratories that are still using pneumatic controls and dual-duct HVAC systems, which are obsolete for the purposes of cutting-edge research laboratories. Additionally, these aged systems are not energy-efficient and cannot support the precisely controlled stable temperature environment necessary for quantum research. The estimated cost of the work to design this complex system and to develop detailed specifications is $2 million.
Letter:here
11) Subcommittee: Homeland Security
Project name: Town of Estes Park Wildfire Mitigation
Amount: $1,060,000
Recipient: Town of Estes Park, 170 MacGregor Avenue, Estes Park, Colorado 80517
Explanation: This project provides replacement of bare copper wire/8 solid size from the Estes Park power system along US Highway 36 and into Allenspark to reduce risk of fire ignition from power line breakage. The project will provide new insulated and more rigid powerline and associated poles for mainline and services in Allen’s Park and along the main emergency egress corridor (US Highway 36 and US Highway 7) for Estes Park.
Letter: here
12) Subcommittee: Agriculture
Project name: AgNext at Colorado State University
Amount: $1,350,000
Recipient: Colorado State University, 350 W Pitkin St, 140A Animal Sciences 1171 Campus Delivery, Fort Collins, Colorado 80521
Explanation: AgNext at Colorado State University (CSU) is well-positioned to lead a strong public-private partnership to meet the greatest challenges facing animal agriculture and society in modern times: meeting GHG emission reduction goals, enhancing food system resiliency, and providing adequate nutrition and food security to feed a growing population. Through this project AgNext will benefit our community by focusing on: 1.) Benchmarking GHG emissions from ruminant animals, 2.) Validating scalable solutions for mitigation of GHG emissions, 3.) Identifying opportunities for carbon sequestration and maintenance across the landscape, 5.) Quantifying improvements over time, and 6.) Calculating economic impacts of mitigation strategies. By 2050 our planet’s population will increase by 2.2 billion requiring food production to increase by 70% and animal agriculture production to increase by 100% to ensure adequate nutrition to this rapidly growing population. While animal agriculture is an important food system, it is often criticized for its environmental impact, especially its impact on climate change. AgNext will help address the critical nature and timeliness of ensuring food system resiliency and doubling food production while also meeting greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reductions is no small task.
Letter: here
13) Subcommittee: Financial Services and General Government
Project name: Latino Chamber of Commerce Mobile Office
Amount: $250,000
Recipient: Latino Chamber of Commerce, P.O. Box 1013, Lafayette, CO 80026
Explanation: The Latino Chamber of Commerce will acquire a sustainable mobile office, along with 12 workstations and related shared equipment and appliances, to be housed within the mobile office. This project will enable the chamber to maintain and increase the services we provide to the Boulder County Community while building a fiscally responsible, sustainable organization. The sustainability and innovation demonstrated by the Net Zero Trailer will also inspire other organizations and firms within the Boulder County Community to undertake similar, small-footprint initiatives to enhance economic growth with minimal environmental impact.
Letter: here
14) Subcommittee: Labor HHS Education
Project name: Loveland Fire Rescue Authority
Amount: $500,000
Recipient: Loveland Fire Rescue Authority, 1040 Emergency Drive, Loveland, CO 80537
Explanation: The purpose of this funding is to support the renovation of a vacant facility into a state-of-the-art health & wellness center for firefighters in Northern Colorado. The services provided would be designed to strengthen the safety, preparedness, and resiliency of career and volunteer firefighters un the region by implementing wellness and fitness activities that will enable specialized health care providers to offer firefighter specific services, including physical examinations and lab testing, cancer screening, behavioral health assessments, cardiopulmonary assessments, and job-related immunizations. This project would serve nearly 400 firefighters protecting five communities within Northern Colorado.
Letter:here
15) Subcommittee: Interior and Environment
Project name: Town of Minturn Water Infrastructure
Amount: $2,000,000
Recipient: Town of Minturn, 1933 HWY 24, Minturn, CO 81645
Explanation: Minturn seeks to initiate the construction of a new water treatment plant to replace the town’s 60 year old existing plant. With STAG funding, the Town will modernize the plant by installing new membranes, CIP, and skid as well as a new pre-treatment system. In addition, the project will include the construction of a new CMU building, site grading, HVAC improvements, erosion control, electrical service, and security fencing to protect the site during and after construction. This proposal will ensure the continued viability of Minturn’s drinking water supplies by ensuring the effective removal of chemicals, particulates, organic materials, and other debris from the water to ensure clean and potable water that is safe for public consumption.
Letter: here