More than $34 million in grants from the state will go to local communities for public improvement projects.
Forty communities across the state received grants from the Colorado Department of Local Affairs (DOLA).
Hotchkiss got $1.1 million to upgrade the town’s sewer system. De Beque received $2 million to help build a new fire station. The state awarded Mesa County $1 million for road and structure improvements.
The Montrose Recreation District got $1.9 million to expand its community recreation center. And, Cedaredge received nearly $2 million.
"That money will be used for our wastewater treatment facility," Kathleen Sickles, the town’s administrator, said. "We are constructing a new wastewater treatment facility and will decommission our sewer lagoons. It’s a $4 million project."
Funding for the grants comes from the state severance tax on energy and mineral production and from royalties from minerals extracted on federal land.