Park County is about to come into a lot of money.

At Tuesday’s county commission meeting, commissioners unanimously agreed to accept $12 million in federal funds over the next two years that, as far as county staff has researched, has very few strings attached and thus can be used to fund many of the projects the county has had on the table but has been unable to pay for with current funds, chair Dossie Overfield said. 

She said the federal government is disbursing funds using the Payment in Lieu of Taxes model, in which counties are granted funds as compensation for the amount of federal lands within the county that don’t otherwise provide any property taxes. 

“We were all a little shocked when we first saw this,” Overfield said after the meeting.

The county previously received $5 million in federal Covid relief funds and is still working through spending some of that money, meaning these funds could be used to go after projects further down the wish, and needs, list. 

Overfield listed the many projects the money could be used to fund that the county has recently discussed, including helping to fund a Cody sewer lagoon expansion with $3 million that can cater to county areas and allow the county to close its facility, paying for an HVAC project that is estimated to cost $4.5-$5 million, a redesign of the Willwood Road, fixing the water situation at the Powell shop and a county hydrological study to address concerns about the amount of potable water available in area aquifers, among other projects. 

“I’ve never been in favor of federal funds, but somebody’s going to get it,” commissioner Joe Tilden said. “This will give us an opportunity to do a lot of projects we’ve had to push off.”