Apache County gets $25,000 grant to hire emergency management writer

Apache County Emergency Management won a $25,000 technical-assistance grant to hire a grant writer, a modest investment county officials will use to chase much larger federal, state and private dollars tied to the region’s coal transition.

Salt River Project said the award came in the program’s eighth and ninth rounds, which it called the final rounds of the Utilities’ Grant Funding Program. APS, SRP and Tucson Electric Power pledged a combined $1 million when the program launched in 2023, and the grants were aimed at communities within 75 miles of a closing or closed coal plant. In Apache County, that footprint has mattered for years as Springerville and Coronado continue moving toward major fuel changes.

SRP’s Buchanan Davis said the utility wants to keep helping northeastern Arizona communities build “long-term economic success,” and said SRP plans to “continue to offer support for years to come.” APS’s Tina Marie Tentori said the company is “proud to collaborate” on helping create “a resilient economic future for the region” as Arizona’s energy landscape changes. TEP’s Wendy Erica Werden called the partnerships a chance to learn and grow with local partners and said the work can have “a positive impact today and into the future.”

For Apache County, the practical value is straightforward: a grant writer can help the county identify and pursue money for emergency operations, roads, broadband, workforce training and other infrastructure needs. The county’s Emergency Management office will oversee the hire, and the next test will be whether that staff capacity turns into applications that win larger awards over the next year.

The pressure is real. SRP has said it intends to end coal generation at Coronado Generating Station by the end of 2032 and complete a natural-gas conversion there by late 2029. Tucson Electric Power plans to convert two units at the Springerville Generating Station to natural gas by 2030. Arizona Corporation Commission leadership has said the APS-owned Cholla Power Plant closed March 17, 2025.

Apache County has already seen this approach before. In 2024, the same utility grant program awarded the county $25,000 to hire an engineering firm to write grants for Phase II of the CR 8235 Stanford Road project. SRP also pointed to broadband work that began in 2022 and was designed to connect 11,000 residents and more than 4,000 homes, a reminder that a small planning grant can lead to a much larger public works payoff if the county lands the next round of funding.