James City County residents with ideas for projects that would restore water quality and protect the environment in their neighborhoods have until Jan. 8 to apply for county financial assistance
The county’s Clean Water Heritage grant program offers funding to projects that fall into any of these three categories, according to JCC:
- Stormwater management improvements grants, which encourage organizations to enhance structural aspects of existing best management practices, known as BMPs, or to add new BMPs.
- Non-routine BMP maintenance assistance grants, which encourage organizations to maintain stormwater facilities to prevent infrastructure failure
- Stormwater facility inspection grants, which aid BMP owners in the inspection and maintenance plans of their facility.
Although the county has offered grants for these initiatives before, this is the second year they have been rolled into the Clean Water Heritage program, which started last year, said JCC General Services Director John Horne.
Grant recipients can earn an award ranging from $300 to $2,000.
While neighborhoods, homeowners associations, businesses, clubs and stormwater management facility owners are all eligible to apply for the grant, Horne said neighborhoods made up the majority of applicants last year.
“It’s pretty easy for neighborhoods, if they’ll put a little effort into this, to qualify for it, whereas something that has to do with an engineering fix to drainage, that’s harder for neighborhoods. More detailed thinking has to go into it before they apply,” Horne said.
Applications are online now. For more information, residents can call 757-259-1446 or email stormwater@jamescitycountyva.gov.
