Graham Jaehnig/Daily Mining Gazette Robin Meneguzzo, left, with the Keweenaw Community Foundation, and Julia Petersen, with TNC, spoke at the Keweenaw County Board meeting on Wednesday and requested approval to proceed with an application for a $50,000 Rural Readiness grant through Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development.

EAGLE RIVER, MI — The Nature Conservancy, in partnership with the Keweenaw County Sheriff’s Office and the Keweenaw Area Community Foundation, is in the process for applying for a Rural Readiness grant totaling $50,000. The competitive, reimbursement grant is through the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development.

Julia Petersen, Keweenaw Heartlands project manager with TNC, and Robin Meneguzzo, executive director of Keweenaw Community Foundation, addressed the county board at its regular October meeting Wednesday to seek board approval to move ahead with the application, after submitting a letter of intent in August.

“We were invited to move on and to apply,” Petersen told the board. “So, in the meantime, Robin’s organization has joined as a co-applicant. The Sheriff’s Office and Robin and myself, we’ve been meeting and Eric, the county treasurer, to begin writing that application, and we’re in the midst of that right now, but we thought it would be good practice to make sure that we have your approval to actually apply by Nov. 2 at 3 p.m.”

Meneguzzo said the grant criteria requires a 20% match. Based on a $50,000 grant application, the match totals $10,000. The $50,000 grant, she said is for the planning of the intended project, which is an emergency response center to be located in Keweenaw County.

“So, between the three entities, the sheriff’s department, TNC and the Keweenaw Community Foundation, we’ll all be contributing one-third of the $10,000 in staff time and in-kind donations towards the project, which is eligible for the MDARD grant,” Meneguzzo said.

At the regular August Board of Commissioners meeting, Petersen sought the board’s approval to submit a letter of intent to apply for the grant.

Petersen said at that meeting that if MDARD selects the project and invites the county to apply for the grant, the next step would be to write a more in-depth grant application.

“So, we are working through the application right now and we’ve also received quite a few letters of support,” Meneguzzo said.

Petersen added that of the 15 letters of support promised, 10 have already been received. They include letters from the five townships in the county, the Keweenaw County Road Commission, the Office of Emergency Management for Keweenaw and Houghton counties, Western Upper Peninsula Planning & Development Region, Visit Keweenaw, the Salvation Army, the Health Department, state Rep. Greg Markkanen and Sen. Ed McBroom and U.S. Sen. Jack Bergman.

If the application is approved, the planning phase of a Keweenaw County Emergency Response Center would initially serve three purposes:

First, it will serve for training for the volunteer cadre: medical responders, fire and search and rescue, and the sheriff’s office.

The facility will provide a centrally located training center where emergency service personnel could train locally, including multiagency training and exercises that prepare the various agencies for critical scenarios.

The facility will also provide storage for equipment.

The application is due by 3 p.m. Nov. 2, 2023.

The board unanimously approved the request to complete and submit the application.