Calendar 

REAP Workshop, 10 a.m.

9-1-1 Technical Committee, 9:30 a.m.

Bicycle Pedestrian Advisory Committee, 10 a.m.

Areawide Planning Technical Advisory Committee, 9 a.m.

REAP Workshop, 7 p.m.

9-1-1 Board of Directors, 1 p.m.

Intermodal Transportation Policy Committee, 1:20 p.m.

ACOG Board of Directors, 1:45 p.m.

There are significant changes with this year's program, including:

• Project eligibility - The Oklahoma Department of Commerce has a list of projects that are no longer eligible for REAP funds, due to changes in the enacting legislation.
• Infrastructure - Eighty percent of REAP project funds must now be spent on funding categories one through six, focusing on infrastructure, with additional points awarded to applications within those categories.
• Funding level - The maximum grant request has been raised to $100,000, mainly due to the rising cost of infrastructure projects.  Applicants are encouraged to apply for the least amount needed for a project and cost benefit (grant value per capita) is still a scoring factor.
• Local match - Additional points will be awarded to project applications that demonstrate leveraged funds (either in-kind or cash).

In conjunction with this year's REAP program, ACOG is placing an emphasis on assisting communities with additional grant opportunities available through Community Development Block Grants (CDBG). The CDBG program enables rural Oklahoma communities to finance a variety of public infrastructure and economic improvements that help promote job growth.  Typical program areas include water and wastewater systems improvements, streets, storm water drainage improvement, fire protection, and community and senior centers. 

Eligible communities have been mailed REAP applications. Applications are due October 29, 2010 before 4:00 p.m.  Workshops to discuss both the REAP and CDBG programs will be held September 10 at 10 a.m. and September 21 at 7 p.m., at ACOG's offices, 21 E. Main Street in Bricktown.  Contact Barbara Hurdman, Ryan Bixler, or Steve Willoughby for more information.

On day two of the cruise, we visited the Boys and Girls Club of Oklahoma City and were very impressed with their new facility, at N.W. 36th and Western. We got back to the ship and played putt-putt on deck. On day three, we set up Rock Band on the Wii, and ran through a few Beatles songs. The next day, we played "Catch Phrase," which is an electronic word and phrase guessing party game.

Finally, on the last day of the journey, we had our big coming home party and we brought the ship into port and celebrated with our annual, traditional chili cook-off. Bob Spinks, president and CEO of United Way of Central Oklahoma, joined us for the fiesta. The week capped off with our Rock Band playoff and two rousing and hilarious cakewalks. All told, it was a great cruise, as we had a lot of fun and raised over $9,000 in funds for a wonderful organization that serves our region in many ways.

ACOG has served the United Way of Central Oklahoma over the past 15 years as a Pacesetter organization. Pacesetters set the "pace" for the fall campaign, which starts after Labor Day in September. ACOG has had one of the highest giving rates per capita (per employee) for organizations with 20 or more employees in annual workplace campaign giving.

We had over 100 stakeholders at the workshop, which was held at Chesapeake Energy's campus. The participants came from the public, private and non-profit sectors, and engaged with each other in break-out sessions that focused on five key areas of the grant, including regional land use, mobility, environmental, economic development and health issues.

The program, formally announced in June, is designed to create economically competitive, healthy, opportunity-rich communities. Funding was approved by Congress in HUD's 2010 budget, as part of a $200 million fund for the agency's new Office of Sustainable Housing and Communities.

The goodwill we've received this summer while working on this effort has been amazing. Our team worked on data collection and developing the grant application narrative. Numerous meetings and a near all-nighter helped us meet the August 23 deadline.  We also had significant direct correspondence with a lot of regional participants who understand the importance of this new endeavor.

Ultimately, whether we receive the grant or not, we hope to foster long-term relationships between entities in the region who may not have traditionally worked together in the past. In order to start establishing livability as a real, tangible factor in our lives, we have to first start talking about it.