{"id":35578,"date":"2023-02-24T14:24:23","date_gmt":"2023-02-24T21:24:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/silverton-gets-funding-to-improve-economic-diversification\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T08:25:37","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T08:25:37","slug":"silverton-gets-funding-to-improve-economic-diversification","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/silverton-gets-funding-to-improve-economic-diversification\/","title":{"rendered":"Silverton gets funding to improve economic diversification"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Thirteen
Thirteen Silverton nonprofits will receive anywhere from $500 to $10,000 from town coffers, thanks to a new initiative to help support local organizations. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald file)<\/span>du1-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Silverton\u2019s economy is getting some much needed funding thanks to a $75,000 grant awarded to The San Juan Development Association by Colorado\u2019s Division of Local Affairs\u2019 Rural Economic Development Initiative.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s super exciting,\u201d said SJDA spokeswoman Beth Kremer. \u201cIt\u2019s through DOLA for the Rural Economic Development Incentive grant, and it\u2019s there to help support small rural communities with different types of projects and positions.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to DOLA\u2019s website<\/a>, successful applicants for the REDI grant are from counties with fewer than 50,000 people and communities with fewer than 25,000 people. Counties or communities that apply have to show that the projects will fall under job creation and retention, capacity building, economic resilience and support of entrepreneurial ecosystems.<\/p>\n

The SJDA applied for the grant in September and finally learned its proposal was accepted in December.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a grant to help spur on either economic diversification or development,\u201d Kremer said. \u201cThe San Juan Development Association is really the only economic housing and community development organization here serving Silverton in San Juan County. We do a lot of small business support, connecting them to resources, supporting them with training and helping identify potential companies to come to this area.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to its website<\/a>, SJDA\u2019s mission is to enhance \u201ceconomic diversification in Silverton and San Juan County, CO by promoting collaboration, partnerships, and trust between businesses, nonprofits, and local governments through community priority projects.\u201d<\/p>\n

Creating a master plan of economic plans in 2022, the SJDA now has monetary backing to move forward on several key town projects planned for 2023 and beyond.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re focusing on a lot of the recent projects that were identified in our master plan that got approved last summer,\u201d Kremer said. \u201cWe went after this grant to help the town and county and all the other kinds of entities move these projects forward. It also helps with management of our organization (SJDA), and setting up long-term, financial funding sources and membership opportunities, and allows me to work on the strategic direction of this organization, so that we can have more stability and a clear path forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kremer said the grant money will also help pay for a new full-time economic development position in San Juan County, something SJDA and Kremer desperately need.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got a lot of projects we\u2019re working on, but I\u2019m really the only staff member,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m in a part-time role. This grant will really allow the organization to bring on additional staff and pay them to take on some of these projects and really go out into the community, so that they can feel our presence a lot more.\u201d<\/p>\n

The San Juan Development Association is comprised of board members who represent Silverton and San Juan County, Silverton Chamber of Commerce, Silverton School District, and Region 9 Economic Development District of Southwest Colorado. The additional position the REDI grant will help pay for is a Community Project and Sustainability Coordinator, according to a news release.<\/p>\n

Kremer said another thing that excites her about the REDI grant is the help it will bring to the affordable housing and broadband projects already underway in San Juan County.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re trying to be pretty aggressive with housing opportunities,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019re doing a lot with housing development right now. They\u2019re currently working on building some single-family homes in the Anvil (Mountain) Subdivision. There\u2019s also a lot of work around broadband, getting additional broadband access. Having that additional resource, so we don\u2019t have any restrictions is really helping us. I think those are the two areas that the grant is really going to help support in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

molsen@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Juan Development Association received a $75,000 grant from Colorado\u2019s REDI program<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":35579,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[374,28,327],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-35578","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-economic-development","tag-headlines","tag-silverton"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35578","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35578"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35578\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":83024,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35578\/revisions\/83024"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35579"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35578"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35578"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35578"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=35578"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}