Coconino County hosts post-Dragon Bravo economic recovery meetings in Fredonia and Page

Coconino County put on a series of economic recovery meetings, titled “listening ses­sions,” on the week of December 8, to ad­dress concerns of the economic impact of the Dragon Bravo fire and other fires on the Kaibab this year. The county contracted AC Disaster Consulting to develop a recovery plan and to organize initia­tives to aid tourism, natural resource and social recovery. Fredo­nia’s meeting was on Monday, December 8, while Page’s was Tues­day, December 9; other meeting locations in­cluded Marble Can­yon, Navajo Nation/LeChee, Tuba City, Flagstaff and Tusayan.

In addition to accept­ing feedback from the communities - which included familiar con­cerns, such as financial compensation of local contractors who aided firefighting efforts, ac­countability and seek­ing promises of more effective prevention methods against simi­lar crises in the future - the meeting shared a series of resources as­sembled by the state and participating busi­nesses to help address the needs of the com­munity.

Services like the Small Business Readi­ness For Resiliency Grant by the U.S. Chamber of Com­merce, the Grants for Small Businesses Di­saster Relief Fund by DoorDash, Grants for Hospitality and Res­taurant Community by Golden Rule Charity and a number of oth­ers were presented as potential avenues for relief.

More information is available by searching “Economic recovery resources” on coconi­no.az.gov, including schedules for further meeting and applica­tion information for participating economic relief funds. Citizens who were unable to provide feedback at the listening meet­ings but still wish to, can contact recovery@ coconino.az.gov