LOGAN – At their regular meeting on May 12, the members of the Cache County Council approved the allocation of revenues from the county’s Recreation, Arts, Parks and Zoos/Restaurant taxes totaling more than $4.7 million to local municipalities and non-profit groups.
In March of this year, county officials received 89 grant applications for funds totaling more than $6.8 million from those tax revenue accounts, according to Alma Burgess, the county’s grant administrator. Of that number, 78 requests were recommended for either full or partial funded.
The multi-page recommendations from the RAPZ/Restaurant Tax Committee were adopted largely without the heated debate that has occurred in previous years.
The only exception to that was a successful motion from council Vice Chair Kathryn Beus to increase the allocation going to the Logan Community Foundation to support stage productions by the Cache Theatre Company from $50,000 to $100,000.
The council members approved funding for six county projects – most of which were fully funded – and multiple grant requests from 18 municipalities, including Amalga, Cornish, Hyrum, Lewiston, Logan, Mendon, Millville, Newton, Nibley, North Logan, Paradise, Providence, Richmond, River Heights, Smithfield, Trenton and Wellsville.
The council members also looked favorably on more than 40 grant requests from local non-profits.
Cache County has collected a 1 percent sales tax on prepared food since 1992 to fund support for tourism, recreation and the cultural arts.
The RAPZ (Recreation, Arts, Parks and Zoos) tax — which is a tenth of 1 percent of sales tax — was added in 2002 by a popular vote by county residents to support capital projects and the operating expenses of local recreational venues.
Total revenue collected by those taxes in 2025 was some $5.4 million, Burgess explained.
Among the fully approved grant requests, the big winners were the Cache Valley Center for the Arts, raking in for $262,000; indoor ventilation upgrades (($118,000) and a water main replacement project ($366,157), both at the Cache County Fairgrounds; and support for the summer citizens program managed by the Cache Chamber of Commerce ($85,000).
As in previous years, however, the members of the RAPZ/Restaurant Tax Committee had to recommend that disbursements to some events and groups be trimmed.
For example, the Utah Festival Opera & Musical Theatre had requested funds to support its 2026-27 season in the amount of $460,000. The council members approved $400,000.
The American Center Heritage Center in Wellsville had requested $208,500 to support in operations and maintenance, but only received $175,000.
Zootah at Willow Park had its grant request shorted by nearly $50,000 and a grant proposal for the Cache Valley Civil Ballet for $183,000 was trimmed to $110,000.
Grant requests that were not favorable considered for the awarding of tax revenue came from the Cache Trails Alliance, the Cache Valley Gardners’ Market, the Little Bloomsbury Foundation, the Center Street Art-Beat event, the Soulfill Music Foundation, the Valor Soccer Club and others.