Lewis and Clark County Wins $50,000 Planning Grant for Lincoln EOC

Lewis and Clark County received one of eight awards statewide from the Montana Department of Commerce’s Community Development Block Grant Planning Program, a Jan. 6, 2026 announcement said. The county’s $50,000 award will pay for a preliminary architectural report for an emergency operations center in Lincoln, a key early step before design, permitting and construction.

The CDBG Planning Program supports pre-construction work that helps communities prepare larger infrastructure or capital projects. Eligible activities include growth policies, preliminary engineering and architectural reports, and regulatory updates. By covering the front-end planning, the grants aim to make proposed projects more competitive for subsequent state or federal construction dollars and minimize costly redesigns later in the development process.

For residents of Lewis and Clark County, the architectural report funded by this award will define the scope, siting options and estimated costs for an emergency operations center, an infrastructure piece that centralizes incident management, communications and resource coordination. Local emergency operations centers typically play a central role in responses to wildfires, floods, severe weather and other public-safety incidents by providing a coordinated hub for county officials, first responders and partner agencies.

At $50,000, the grant covers the study and documentation needed to move a concept toward shovel-readiness rather than construction itself. That early work is critical: clear architectural and engineering plans produce reliable cost estimates, identify regulatory hurdles and enable Lewis and Clark County to pursue larger capital grants with stronger applications. Planning work also tends to generate short-term local contract work for architects, engineers and consultants, while improving the county’s ability to manage long-term project costs.

Statewide, eight Montana communities and counties secured CDBG planning awards in this round, reflecting a broader push to upgrade municipal planning capacity and accelerate infrastructure projects across the state. For Lincoln and Lewis and Clark County, the immediate next step is completion of the preliminary architectural report, which county officials can use to refine budgets, select preferred sites and apply for construction-phase funding.

The planning grant arrives as many Montana communities reassess emergency preparedness and infrastructure resilience. For taxpayers, the award represents a relatively small investment that could unlock larger construction dollars and, ultimately, a permanent facility aimed at strengthening public-safety coordination for the county.