Development fund nears unanticipated deadline

The board overseeing the allocation of the Boulder Development Fund recently realized it had misunderstood a crucial deadline, but the state agency behind the $500,000 money pot has worked with the board in hopes that no funds will go unused.

For months, the board believed that the entire fund had to be committed to projects by June 30, lest any money be left unused and thereafter unavailable — but that the actual work could happen after that date. At the board’s March 13 meeting, board chair and City Council member Drew Dawson said they recently learned otherwise — that all projects to which funds were allocated had to be completed by June 30.

The misunderstanding was the board’s, he said, and not the fault of the Montana Department of Commerce, which oversees the fund’s allocation for the state.