Skamania County is set to receive $278,994 in federal funding this year from a program designed to support police, firefighters, schools and road construction across the country.
Sally Jewell, secretary of the U.S. Department of the Interior, announced the payments Thursday as part of a $405 million package of federal funding for counties throughout the U.S. The money comes from the 2015 Payments in Lieu of Taxes program, an initiative designed to support a wide array of public services at the local level.
The money comes to Skamania County at a crucial time, shortly after critical federal timber funding through the Secure Rural Schools program failed to gain support for renewal in Congress. The program was created in 2000 and recently expired, leaving rural counties that once depended on the timber industry, like Skamania, clamoring for funding.
Late in 2014, county leaders devised a budget anticipating to get about $1.5 million in Secure Rural Schools funding. Then, Congress adjourned without renewing the program.
