The Boulder Transition Advisory Committee (BTAC) voted on Apr. 4 against submitting a grant application to the Pilot Community Tourism Grant Program (PCTGP), due to an inability to properly fulfill application requirements before the grant’s Apr. 30 submission deadline and an ambiguous group consensus as to project funding priorities.
Community members were also concerned that the $2.75 million dollar grant would be issued under a five-year allocation schedule, which would stipulate significant reporting and administrative commitments beyond the present capacity of Boulder’s city government. It was also unclear to city officials and community members whether PCTGP would pay for invoices and awarded contracts directly, or merely reimburse spending from existing city funds. A reimbursement payment scheme would ultimately force Boulder to work within existing budgeting constraints, or take a loan, and greatly limit the grant’s potential impact.
“I feel sad and disappointed, but at the same time relieved,” said Boulder Chamber of Commerce board member Kerri Kumasaka, who first brought the grant to the attention of Boulder city officials this past February. “I do feel we would have had a good chance at the grant, had we applied for it, but at the same time it would have been a lot of work getting it in before the deadline.”
PCTGP grants are purposed towards rural communities that wish to increase local tourism, and are issued by the Montana Department of Commerce. In order to qualify for a grant, applicants must first create and distribute a tourism assessment to determine whether residents support increased tourism in their communities. The assessment is also meant to evaluate existing tourist attractions, potential market demand for the destination, supporting facilities (e.g. hotels) and transportation infrastructure. Kumasaka, after presenting the opportunity to city officials, formed a steering committee with 10 other Boulder residents to develop a tourism assessment and complete Boulder’s application to PCTGP.
“We [the steering committee] had developed a tourism assessment, but some felt we may need to create a more professional one,” said Kumasaka. “If nothing else, the process got us to think about opportunities for our community and I think we’re very focused.”
The process revealed coordination problems between local grant-seeking organizations and Boulder’s city government. Many grants require a growth policy and a “downtown master plan” updated within three years of the application deadline. Boulder’s growth policy and “downtown master plan” are presently five years old.
“With all these groups working on their own projects, no one really knows what the other is doing. The problem we’re running into, with everyone doing their own thing, is that key documents aren’t getting updated,” said Jefferson County Planning Director LaDana Hintz. Hintz explained that, as the county and Boulder have different guiding documents, and articulate different goals, it is necessary for the city to coordinate with local, grantseeking stakeholders independently from the county. Hintz is also the county representative to Boulder’s planning board, though it operates without the county’s explicit guidance.
“There is a chance they’ll offer this grant again next year,” said Kumasaka. “This gives us time to decide, again, if it’s something we want to pursue.”
Whether the city pursues the PCTGP grant next year or not, a cross-organizational group, built on groundwork laid by the steering committee, will continue to meet in preparation for future grant applications. The group, now facilitated by Binkowski and LaDana, intends to meet monthly, immediately after the BTAC meeting in city hall, and invite any who wish to contribute to the city’s long-term grant strategy.
“We’ve got so many great organizations in Boulder, but we are all sort of going in different directions,” said Jefferson County event coordinator Bruce Binkowski. “Now we can focus our energies. I think going after the grant was a great idea, but we just didn’t have time. Now we can take a step back, and come together to get things done.”
Immediate first steps include updating Boulder’s growth policy and “downtown master plan” and resuming quarterly updates to Montana Main Street, which is Montana’s coordinating program with Main Street America, a group dedicated to aiding downtown revitalization, local development, and historic preservation efforts across rural America. PCTGP grant guidelines clearly state that interested communities can demonstrate tourism readiness by establishing an affiliate status with Montana Main Street, which Boulder has maintained since 2011.
“You guys [Boulder] are doing awesome things, you’re just not telling the state your story’” said Montana Main Street coordinator Micky Zurcher. “We’re not anywhere near the point where we’re kicking people out of the Main Street program. But all you have to do to remain in the program, be able to apply to Main Street grants, get additional resources, and receive technical assistance is do these quarterly reports.”
Main Street Montana presently has 37 participating communities, many of which, according to Zurcher, have fallen off in regularly submitting quarterly reports. She attributes this change largely to the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic. Moving forward, Hintz will be responsible for submitting the reports on Boulder’s behalf.
