Lesson #3: How to Mix and Match Funding Sources

David always had to make do with not much growing up on a dirt-poor dairy farm. Round Mountain has to main issues needing addressing: Aging inaccurate water meters and a failing ground water well.

The water meters consist of Badger water meter that were installed in 1991. As David mentions these were great meters but due to their age were estimated to be off by 4-8%. On top of that the districts main water source, a ground water well drilled in 1975, was failing. This well needed to be redrilled for Round Mountain to continue having access to their usual water rights instead of buying water from the state at a premium.

David then attended a Special Districts Association conference. There he met with an engineering company that worked with the Colorado State Energy Office who could help him with an incentive program to replace water meters, while placing the guarantee back on the engineering company.

His next task was to match the money together for each grant. He was then able to reach out to Department of Local Affairs and work with them so he could then capture money that has been lost to use that as matching money. David then applies for the DOLA grant against a pool of 70 other entities with only 3.5 million dollars available. With a thorough and compelling presentation was awarded $850,000.

The bit of money that David needed to complete his project was provided in a low interest in the State Revolving Fund Loan. Fast forward to today and David has been able to capture 8% more revenue on water meter sales all while never having to do a rate increase to pay for the project.