From John Handy, of Treebones, who did a terrific job putting this grant application to the USDA all together and soliciting the matching “in-kind” donations from local residents and businesses.

“It’s a great day for us. We were awarded a grant of $178,633 to work on fuel mitigation on our roads and driveways and make our properties safer and defensible in case of fire. It will take a lot of planning and cooperation to make this money go as far as possible. It’s a lot of money but we could have used much more. This grant approval just happened today (10/19) so give me some time to organize next steps. We won’t have the money in hand immediately.

I’ll pull together an informational meeting as soon as I can to explain the process going forward.

The application process was long and involved and was only made possible by some generous in-kind contribution commitments by members of our South Coast Community. Thank you all.

Warmly, John Handy”