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Replacing old vehicles and housing for law-enforcement in Dinosaur were at the top of the list when commissioners met Wednesday to prioritize $1.3 million in new purchases.

The county is seeking $667,500 in grant money from the Dep--artment of Local Affairs, which local officials are willing to match with the same figure.

The grant, combined with Moffat County's contribution, would provide the $1.3 million the county seeks.

The county applies for grants three times a year: April, August and December. Today is the deadline for submitting requests in the next application cycle.

Two areas received priority at Wednesday's meeting. The first was for replacing a fleet of aging vehicles used by county workers in several departments.

"We've got some vehicles with well over 100,000 miles on them," Commissioner Darryl Steele said.

In the grant request, commissioners are asking for $359,149 for vehicles. Commissioners said the departments that need new vehicles are the Sheriff's Office, jail, parks and recreation and pest management, which needs all-terrain vehicles for fogging mosquitoes and weed control.

Equipment requested for the county road and bridge department includes a bulldozer and a motor-grader. The total re----quested for heavy equipment is $840,500.

Other equipment requested by the county totals $135,351.

Steele said that because of gas-and-oil exploration in Northwest Colorado, DOLA, which distributes energy impact funds, now appears to be more receptive to funding roadwork and equipment to maintain the roads.

The No. 2 priority for the DOLA grant application is resident housing for law-enforcement in the town of Dinosaur.

Oil-and-gas exploration has caused some rental-home owners in that community to sell, making it difficult for resident deputies to find housing.

Steele hopes that the grant would help with the cost of a modular-housing units, which the county could equal or better with an in-kind match of the land, taps for water hook-ups and other work.

DOLA grants often require matching funds from the requesting entities, something the county couldn't afford the past three years.

"We didn't have the matching money, so we didn't ask," Steele said. "This grant would help us get caught up over not having capital expenditures in 2005, or '04 or '03."

The day before the Wednes--day special session, commissioners met with the city of Craig and Craig Fire/Rescue during a workshop to talk about priorities for the grant requests.

Grants are prioritized be----cause higher priorities have better chances of receiving funds, Steele said, and even then, the top requests may not be fully accepted.

"They like to see one grant because it's easier to administer," Steele said. "They may pick only parts of the request, or fund just a percentage of a requested item."

Occasionally, DOLA grants are approved out of the grant cycles. This happened last year, when DOLA approved $1.5 million for the chip-and-sealing of Moffat County Road 57 and the paving project on C.R. 4.

"We've gotten some good grants in the last few years, and Moffat County is very appreciative," Steele said.

After grant applications are submitted to DOLA, they are reviewed, and a statewide meeting is set up to distribute the funds.

All of the commissioners worked on the grant applications, but Commissioner Saed Tayyara was in Gunnison at a Colorado River Water Conservation District meeting when Wednesday's vote on the prioritizing took place.