Grants panel keeps Helene recovery priority but folds it into strategic alignment

At a monthly meeting, county grants staff said leaders want to continue prioritizing Tropical Storm Helene recovery but not as a separate scoring category. Angeline Johnson, grants manager, told members that "county leadership that they do want to keep the Helene recovery focus in for another cycle" while removing it as its own scoring line and folding it into strategic alignment.

Johnson said the change means projects strongly aligned with both the county strategic plan and Helene recovery would score the maximum points under the consolidated criterion. "We removed it as a separate scoring category, and instead, we incorporated it in with a strategic alignment," she said, describing the staff recommendation meant to incentivize alignment without overweighting the Helene focus. Committee members offered questions and discussion about how that integration would affect scoring, but staff said the points and rubric language will be shown in the scoring criteria distributed in the packet.