The Jefferson County Commission, facing a crucial deadline at the calendar year-end, is wrestling with funding options for the nearly two-year-long effort to restore and convert Cottage Five on the former Montana Developmental Center’s south campus into a new public health facility.
Jefferson Local Development Corp. project coordinator Leah Lewis, who has been responsible for the restoration’s grantseeking and planning, told the Commission at its Dec. 17 meeting that she will present the project to the Montana State Legislature Appropriations sub-committee sometime between Jan. 15 and Jan. 17, hoping to reverse a decision earlier this month by the Montana Department of Commerce not to award the county a $500,000 historic preservation grant.
In the meantime, the County is applying for, or awaiting decisions on, another roughly $2 million in grants that will help fund the $3.1 million total cost of the Cottage Five project. Due to the uncertainty of those pending grant awards, the Commission said it would likely move the $188,000 of American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds (SLFRF) reserved for the project to the county’s general fund before year’s end.
