Times Observer photo by Josh Cotton Warren County Commissioner Jeff Eggleston, right, has proposed a task force aimed at pursuing grant opportunities between now and the end of 2023. Here, the commissioners were presented with an award by Congressman Glenn Thompson for their involvement in the redevelopment of the co-working space element of the PNC Building, a building preserved by significant state and federal grant dollars.

There’s grant money out there that can support community projects.

Commissioner Jeff Eggleston has outlined a concerted effort to go after the funding. He said the proposal started as a conversation with the Warren County Chamber of Business & Industry.

Citing federal legislation — the American Rescue Plan and infrastructure funding — he said there is a “huge amount of money floating through the government right now” with “80 percent flowing to grant programs.”

He said he has been “getting inundated” with grant opportunities. “It’ll be decades probably until we see another investment in infrastructure like that,” he said.

The proposal he brought forward to go after that funding in a “strategic way” is a task force “very specifically related to grants and infrastructure.”

He has called it the Grants & Infrastructure Task Force and a proposal states that it’s mission would be “to focus on robust, high-quality grant proposals from a variety of sources to be submitted in 2022-23 and increase growth and development in Warren County.

He has proposed an aggressive timeline, identifying “quality projects” by the end of May.

“The group would be tasked with identifying projects that they think are doable over the next two years,” Eggleston said.

“Warren County has traditionally missed many windows and lost funding opportunities due to a lack of planning and preparation to have ‘grant-ready’ projects on the shelf when the time comes,” the proposal states.

The task force would expire at the end of 2023.

That could include partnerships with municipal and other county partners to go after bigger funding opportunities.

The proposal outlines several possible project areas — emergency management infrastructure, redevelopment projects, road improvements, recreation upgrades, blight, housing and mental health.

“This initiative will give the county a solid footing to focus on projects relevant to the community and increase the investment of the state and federal governments in our community.”

Eggleston said the focus of the task force is “quality over quantity.

“If we got two really, really good (grants) out of this it would be worth the effort,” he stressed, noting that the group would have a “achievability first” mindset.

Eggleston said the task force’s meetings would be open to the public with a goal of producing a list of recommended projects this July.

That timeline, he said, would pave a path for grant applications in 2023.

“Next year is the best opportunity we have to pull some of it down,” he said.

The plan includes some American Rescue Plan funding from the county “to pay for contract grant writers,” he said. “This group is advisory only.”

Whether the group sees the light of day is up in the air.

Commissioner Tricia Durbin said she would like to see a grant writer hired by the county as a first step.

“Task forces, I always appreciate them.” she said. “(I) can’t say how functional they end up being.”

Commissioner Ben Kafferlin agreed.

“Nothing in here prevents the county from hiring a grant writer,” Eggleston stressed, arguing that “getting the right person” given the subtleties of the work can be a challenge.

Eggleston stressed that the focus of the effort is to “get everybody moving in a direction.”