Application Content and Procedures

Application Content and Procedures. In order to receive consideration for a grant award from the Commission, recycling cooperative organizations or a lead local government of an organization or cooperative effort shall submit an application as per the following procedures: A. MDEQ will provide notice annually of the availability of the recycling cooperative grants including the anticipated amount of funds available and a deadline by which grant proposals must be submitted. All applications received by the advertised deadline date will be evaluated for consistency with these regulations, subject to the availability of funds. B. Grant applications shall be submitted on an application form provided by the MDEQ and shall include a detailed narrative description of the scope of work and a detailed itemized budget for the cooperative recycling project. The itemized budget shall indicate the overall total costs of conducting the project and the amount of grant funds proposed to be applied towards the total cost of the recycling system. C. Grant applicants that propose to utilize contractual assistance in the design or construction of the recycling system or any unit or component of the system, shall include the name, the contact information, and the primary person(s) of contact for the contractor selected by the applicant and the reasons for the selection of the contractor. If a contractor has not been selected at the time of filing the application, the applicant shall describe the process to be used to select the contractor. D. Grant applications that propose construction of new facilities or structures shall provide documentation of completion of the intergovernmental review process as described in the Appendix to this rule. This documentation shall include copies of comments received during the intergovernmental review process. If the process is not complete at the time of filing the application, the applicant shall provide information on the status of the intergovernmental review process and shall describe the applicant’s proposed actions to complete the review process. E. Unless specifically approved by the Commission, an award to an applicant shall be limited to the total amount of available grant funds advertised by the MDEQ. F. Applications shall be evaluated and ranked with preference for approval based on the following factors: (1) The proposed recycling cooperative project will result in multiple new local recycling programs being created or in substantial enhancements to existing local recycling programs for the jurisdictional area of the applicant organization. (20 points). (2) The level of need of the local recycling cooperative project is deemed to be greater than for other proposed projects. (20 points). (3) The recycling cooperative project proposal has demonstrated that the proposed recycling programs will be self-sustainable and/or will offer a long term commitment of resources by the member local governments to the project. (20 points). (4) The proposed recycling cooperative project will be supported or matched by additional funding of member governments of the cooperative organization or by other grant awards to the cooperative organization or to its member local governments. (15 points). (5) The proposed recycling cooperative project will be supported or matched by the contribution of physical properties, structures or equipment from the cooperative organization or its member governments. (15 points). (6) The applicant has not been previously funded under this grant category. (10 points). When funds requested exceed funds available, the ranking factors above may be used to determine which projects are awarded grant funding. However, the Commission, in its discretion, may also apportion available funding to applicants in a fair and equitable manner when the factors above do not yield clear award preferences.