Funding the Mission—A Lyons Flood Recovery Effort

One of the things I love about S2o is how personally we take our work. All of us kayak, all of us love whitewater, and all of us have a vested interest in making sure that the parks that we make come out with amazing results. It goes without saying that we take our projects very personally.

Perhaps the project that has hit the closest to home, however, is the Lyons recovery projects that we have become involved in. S2o was back at work in Lyons within a week of the disaster striking. Our number one goal was working with the Town of Lyons, FEMA, and the other federal and state recovery agencies such as the NRCS, CWCB, State of Colorado, Colorado Parks and Wildlife, etc.

Putting the engineering work aside the critical path on these efforts are funds. If Lyons wants to come back, it needs to have money. Our staff has now volunteered countless hours to help the Town of Lyons apply for a number of grants from all kinds of sources including a $1 million grant from Great Outdoors Colorado for parks recovery, a $1.6 million grant for trails recovery, and a number of $100,000 to $300,000 grants for stream and riparian zone restoration. We continue to search out these opportunities.

At S2o we are proud to be pursuing these funding opportunities because we believe that the recovery of this Town is founded in rebuilding and recreating the great outdoor recreational opportunities that fuel our central business district.