The Utah Coal Country Strike Team recently awarded two $75,000 grants to Price and Castle Dale as part of its economic redevelopment initiative. The new funds support the team’s primary initiatives to assist with regional economic diversification and renew existing residential and commercial assets with programs such as downtown beautification, tourism infrastructure and other development priorities.
“We continue to be immensely grateful for the efforts of the Utah Coal Country Strike Team,” said Danny Van Wagoner, mayor of Castle Dale. “With these new funds, we will keep doing the necessary work of building up Castle Dale City and creating a bright future for our citizens.”
The Utah Coal Country Strike Team was created by the Utah Legislature and is led by the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute at the University of Utah. It was funded with a $3.5 million budget, including funding from the Alliance for the American Dream and a $500,000 appropriation from the Legislature, to help Carbon and Emery counties diversify their economies and retrain their workforces. The multi-disciplinary strike team started work in October 2018 and is focusing on raising incomes of 10,000 households by 10 percent by the end of 2020.
Supporting research gathered by the Strike Team shows that economic diversity with a tourism focus has been successful in other coal communities, including revitalizing downtown districts and development of the arts. The lack of infrastructure, inadequate marketing and inadequate workforce training are barriers to tourism development in rural communities, which this new funding will be used to rectify.
“On behalf of Price City, I wish to express our sincere gratitude to the Utah Coal Country Strike Team for their continued support,” said Mike Kourianos, mayor of Price. “We greatly value this investment and will ensure its use in helping our community prosper.”