Section 335.06. Application and award procedures.

  Aid available under this program shall be awarded to those projects with the highest points on a priority list, as determined by the procedures and criteria in s. NR 335.09 , and in accordance with the procedures in this section. Projects on the priority list shall be funded within the limits of available funds.

(1)  All applications for a grant under this chapter shall be received by the department or postmarked no later than September 15 of each year, unless otherwise noted on the application materials. The signed application and required attachments shall be delivered to the department location identified in the application materials. Acceptable delivery methods shall be identified in the application materials. Applications received or postmarked on the same day shall be randomly assigned an order received within that day.

(2)  The department shall review each application received for completeness and within 15 days of the application deadline shall advise the applicant in writing of any deficiencies, omissions or errors in the application in writing. Incomplete applications may not be considered if all information is not received by the department within 45 days of the application deadline for that year. The date that the last materials, required for a complete application, were received by the department shall be used to break ties on the priority list.

(3)  The department shall establish a priority list within 60 days of the application deadline, which ranks all complete applications received by the application deadline. Applicants shall be notified of their placement on the priority list and the probability of approval for funding. The ranking of applicants shall be made available upon written request. In developing this list the department shall:

(a) Rank applications with identical point totals based upon the date the complete application was received by the department with highest priority given to the earliest received complete application.

(b) Add a contingency, based on past experience with the grant program to the cost estimates provided in the grant applications to assure adequate funding is available for projects receiving a commitment to funding. If the next project on the list would exceed the available funding the department may choose to reserve those funds until there is adequate funding to fully commit to the next project on the list.

(4)  Applicants receiving a commitment for funding shall submit plans and specifications to the department, for approval within 6 months of the notification on placement on the priority ranking list, unless an extension is requested in writing and approved by the department.

(5)  Applicants receiving a commitment for funding shall submit construction bids for the proposed work to the department within 90 days of department approval of plans and specifications. Following submission to the department, the owner may rebid the project without losing eligibility if the original bid is deemed too high or inappropriate. The applicant shall rebid the project within 60 days of receipt of the original bid. The department shall direct the owner to rebid the project if it deems the bid inappropriate. The applicant shall rebid the project within 60 days of receiving notification from the department that the department deems the bid inappropriate.

(6)  The department shall issue, in writing, a notice of grant award within 30 days of receipt of an acceptable construction bid.

(7)  All complete applications received or postmarked after the application deadline shall be returned to the applicant.

(8)  If there are insufficient funds to award aid to all eligible applicants on the priority list, their placement on the priority ranking list shall be maintained until the next grant application deadline in case a higher ranked project elects not to receive their grant or returns unused funds to the program. As application requirements could change between grant cycles, sponsors of unfunded projects shall submit new applications each grant cycle.

(9)  No grant may be awarded under this program until the owner of the dam provides adequate proof of ownership of the entire dam and a dam failure analysis approvable under the standards of s. NR 333.05 (2) , including maps suitable for the purpose of implementing land use controls below the dam.

(10)  No grant may be awarded under this program for a dam project that has already received a grant award through the Dam Removal Grant program administered under ch. NR 336 .

(11)  For any project that does not adequately advance within one year of funding notification to a point where the grant award is written, the department's commitment to fund said project may be rescinded. Funds that have been so rescinded may then be committed to the next unfunded project on the priority list.

History: Cr. Register, April, 1991, No. 424 , eff. 5-1-91; CR 10-032 : am. (intro.) and (1), renum. (2) to (7) to be (3) to (8) and am. (3) to (5), (7) and (8), cr. (2), (3) (a), (b), (9) to (11) Register October 2010 No. 658 , eff. 11-1-10.