Section 1570.30  General Procedures

a)         Rural applicants seeking assistance must file an application with the State Forester, Department of Natural Resources, Division of Forest Resources, 600 North Grand Avenue West, P.O. Box 19225, Springfield, Illinois 62794-9225. Deadlines for the grant program will comply with the Federal Fiscal Year, October 1 - September 30. The deadline for submission of a grant application will be set by the Department and will vary from year to year because of notice to the Department from the United States Forest Service as to the funding of this grant program.

b)         The State Forester will evaluate each proposal to determine if it meets the basic criteria as stated under Section 1570.20 above. He will also evaluate each qualifying proposal to determine the priority of the proposed project. (See Section 1570.40 for further explanation of criteria used in determining priority.)

c)         Applicants with qualifying applications will then receive notification from the Department of Natural Resources of availability of cost-share funds within limits of the federal allocation to the State.

d)         Notification will be sent to proponents of applications which did not have high enough priority to be funded for the current year. The "year" begins, or corresponds, to the Federal Fiscal Year, October 1-September 30.

e)         Claim for reimbursement should be submitted to the State Forester by applicants with approved projects.

(Source:  Amended at 18 Ill. Reg. 15733, effective October 18, 1994)