Grants totaling $39,500 go to two Fallbrook organizations

The most recent appropriation of District Five Neighborhood Reinvestment Program funds includes $24,500 to the Fallbrook Center for the Arts and $15,000 for the Fallbrook Village Association.

The San Diego County Board of Supervisors voted 5-0 Dec. 7 to allocate Neighborhood Reinvestment Program funding to those two organizations and also to return unused balances of grants for the Fallbrook Women’s Resource Center and the Mission Resource Conservation District to the District 5 budget. Supervisor Bill Horn recommended the funding of the projects from his discretionary budget.

The Fallbrook Center for the Arts will use the grant money to help cover the costs of creating an “Art Corridor” master plan and of making repairs at the Fallbrook School of Arts. The Fallbrook Center for the Arts seeks to make Fallbrook an arts destination for residents and visitors through exhibits, events, and marketing.

The Fallbrook Village Association was awarded the Neighborhood Reinvestment Projects funding to help cover the costs of renovating and remodeling the Visitor Center office which is shared by the Fallbrook Village Association and the Fallbrook Area Visitors Bureau. The Fallbrook Village Association’s goal is to increase the viability of Fallbrook’s economic, civic, cultural, and artistic revitalization through the acquisition,

development, improvement, and operation of real estate in Fallbrook, and the Visitor Center assists weekend visitors, residents, and others in finding information about Greater Fallbrook and its events, services, and attractions. The Neighborhood Reinvestment Program money will be used to help purchase fixtures, furnishing, equipment, and supplies for the office as well as for the renovation and remodeling work.

In May 2007, when the Neighborhood Reinvestment Program was known as the Community Projects program, the Board of Supervisors approved a $15,000 Community Projects grant to the Mission Resource Conservation District to purchase trash pickup vouchers for needy families in Fallbrook. The Mission RCD used $5,657.54 of that funding for the program and has returned the unused $9,342.46 to the county. The money will be reallocated for other Neighborhood Reinvestment Program projects.

The Fallbrook Women’s Resource Center returned $799.47 of a $10,000 grant awarded in April 2009 for venue, food, marketing, supplies, professional services, and entertainment costs of its banquet and silent auction. That money will also be reallocated for other projects.

The supervisors’ Dec. 7 action also reallocated $39,460 of District Five Neighborhood Reinvestment Program funding to publish 2,000 copies of the Red Guide to Recover in Spanish. The Red Guide to Recovery was developed as a resource to distribute to fire or disaster victims who experienced property loss or damage. On Sept. 14 the supervisors allocated $39,460 to the San Diego County Fire Chiefs Association to publish that guide in Spanish, but that association cannot serve as the fiscal agent. The September grant was rescinded, and the money was allocated to the San Miguel Consolidated Fire Protection District.

Board of Supervisors approval is needed if money from a previous grant is used for a purpose other than originally stated, and the Dec. 7 appropriations also amended the purpose of an April 2009 grant to the Greater Valley Center Fire Safe Council to allow money originally stipulated for informational materials, public seminars, and signage to be used for wildland fuel reduction along Lilac Road and Old Castle Road.

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