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RESIDENTIAL SERVICES UPDATES
Tree Grant
24:1 MUNICIPAL TREE GRANTS PROMOTE COLLABORATION, SAVE MONEY
This year the City of Vinita Park was one of 12, 24:1 Area Municipalities to receive an award of up to $10,000 from the Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) through its Tree Resource Improvement and Maintenance (TRIM) cost-share grant program. Beyond Housing wrote grants in coordination with 10 of the 12 municipalities. 24:1 refers to the 24 communities within the boundaries of the Normandy Schools Collaborative geography for one vision of strong communities, engaged families and successful children. 24:1 is a place-based community initiative convened and facilitated by Beyond Housing. As part of this initiative, a majority of the 24:1 area municipalities are working together to provide more effective and efficient service delivery.
As a result, this year up to $70,000 is available to be invested in the following communities 10 municipalities—Bellerive Acres, Cool Valley, Glen Echo Park, Hanley Hills, Pagedale, Pine Lawn, Upland Park, Velda Village Hills, Vinita Park, and Vinita Terrace. MDC funds are matched with recipient funds improve trees in the community, resulting in a total investment of close to $100,000. The grant will be used to strategically remove roughly 160 hazardous and critically dangerous trees on municipal property.
TRIM is a competitive grant that helps communities provide safe and healthy trees. Investment in trees provides lasting improvements in cleaning the air, soil and water. The participating municipalities jointly bid the work to make state and local taxpayer dollars go farther. This year, Beyond Housing estimates the municipalities saved close to $60,000 by bidding the work together.
This is the second year that these 10 municipalities have received such a grant. Last year, Beyond Housing received a Collaborative Tree TRIM grant of $25,000 that paid for professional tree inventories for all 10 of these municipalities. This was the largest grant ever given by the state for this kind of work and never before had so many municipalities collaborated together on one grant. By contracting the work together, the group saved 35% compared to what similar municipalities paid for inventories in recent years.