Weber County’s Recreation, Arts, Museums and Parks program receives money via a local sales and use tax of one-tenth of one percent — or one penny for every $10 spent in the county — to fund new and existing facilities for recreation, arts, museums and parks, as well as qualified cultural organizations and events. The RAMP program was first approved in 2004, then renewed in 2014 and 2024.

“It’s generating about six to six-and-a-half million dollars a year that all goes back into the community,” RAMP Director Shelly Halacy told the Standard-Examiner. “The awesome part about that is that we request that people who apply for the grants match the RAMP grant, so that’s also going back into the community with their share.”

Each year, grants recommended by the RAMP board are approved by the county commission and awarded to applicants. Some of those grants total in the tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars, and applications are exhaustively vetted. However, RAMP also has an EZ Grant program, which awards grants of $2,000 or less to fund smaller projects and also introduce organizations to the application process.

“The EZ Grants are meant to be a little bit easier not only for the board members, because the RAMP application and reviewing process is a very big process, but they’re much simpler for the applicants as well,” Halacy said. “It’s meant to be a one-page application and they put in the description of what they want and then the board reviews it. It’s just a simpler process.”

During the May 6 commission meeting, some 44 EZ Grant requests ranging from just under $1,300 to $2,000 were approved. Ogden Friends of Acoustic Music, or OFOAM, was among the benefiting organizations, having been awarded $2,000 to cover sound support for its Spring Student Outreach program and another $2,000 for the live feed production of its signature event, the Ogden Music Festival at Fort Buenaventura.

“Every spring before the festival, we bring an artist to the schools to let the kids know about the festival, to let them have an experience with live acoustic music,” OFOAM co-Director Reba Nissen told the Standard-Examiner of the outreach program.

This year, OFOAM brought Hot House West Swing Orchestra to a local school. Nissen said the grant makes it possible for an act of that caliber to perform in a space where the house sound system doesn’t quite get the job done. Meanwhile, the festival grant will enhance the experience for attendees who might struggle otherwise to see those performing on stage.

“If you’re at the back, sometimes you can’t really see everything that’s going on,” Nissen said. “So, we added Rezolution AV as a local company. They contacted us last year and said, ‘Hey, we want to help.’ So, we worked it out. Now, it’s an added expense, but now we can’t ever go back because there’s this wall next to the stage and they have three camera operators. So, they’re getting closeups on the artist as they’re picking on the guitar or banjo or whatever.

“Everybody loved it. So, we’re doing it again and we wrote for RAMP funding to get that.”

Nissen said the support provided through RAMP grants is an important resource for organizations like OFOAM, as well as the county’s citizens, who she encourages to take advantage of the facilities and programs RAMP helps to fund.

Many of those offerings will be open and available to experience free of charge this June, July and August through RAMP’s Summer Saturdays program. A full list of dates and participating events/organizations can be viewed at http://bit.ly/44ze77q.

For more information about Weber County RAMP and how to apply for grants, go to https://www.webercountyutah.gov/County_Commission/ramp/.