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The state of Utah on Thursday gave Hildale nearly $1.5 million to build a new bridge and repair other damage from the flood that killed 13 people there last month.
The Permanent Community Impact Fund Board gave Hildale a grant of $1,490,500 to build a new bridge on Canyon Street and construct flood controls, said Cris Rhead, the board's executive secretary.
Rhead on Friday said the board issued the grant after a presentation from Hildale Mayor Philip Barlow that included photos of the Sept. 14 flood and its aftermath.
"It was a very heart-wrenching presentation," Rhead said.
Impact Fund Board grants come from money raised by mineral leases on public lands. Hildale will be allowed to follow its own bid policies to award the construction contracts, Rhead said.
The flood and the recovery money have come at a time when Hildale and adjoining Colorado City, Ariz., are under scrutiny by the federal government and the states for any relationships the municipalities have with the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
The U.S. Department of Justice has filed a lawsuit against the towns and related utilities for what the government calls discrimination against people who do not follow FLDS President Warren Jeffs.
Litigation in the Justice Department lawsuit, which is scheduled to go to trial Jan. 19 in Phoenix, and related cases has included testimony and documentation showing financial relationships and preferential treatment for the FLDS church and loyal businesses.
In one example in the court record, Twin City Water Works diverted $1.7 million to the FLDS, its members and their businesses over a decade, according to an accountant hired by the Justice Department.
Lawyers for the towns have denied that their clients are arms of the church but say town officials have a right to their religion.
Hildale's attorney, Blake Hamilton, on Friday said that the town will issue a request for proposals to find a contractor.
"I don't understand why there would be a concern," Hamilton said. "In fact I think it would be a positive if it went to local businesses — putting money back into the local economy."
Dowayne Barlow, a former Jeffs follower who has since become a witness for the Justice Department, on Friday said he was glad the state had provided the money.
"We would hope that the city and the county will work together in the allotment of the funds and the county would remain in oversight for the city," Barlow said.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Natural Resources Conservation Service announced three days after the flood that it was awarding $100,000 for emergency assistance. Bronson Smart, state conservation engineer for the Service, said that money was issued to Washington County to build a berm along the wash that flooded. Smart said the county will find a contractor to perform the work and the Conservation Service will reimburse the county.
The state money will pay for a larger bridge on Canyon Street over the wash that flooded. A temporary bridge was installed after the flood, but it's mostly gravel over a culvert.
The flood swept away two vehicles carrying three mothers and 13 children. Three boys survived.
One child, 6-year-old Tyson Lucas Black, remains missing. The Washington County Sheriff's Office on Friday said a small-scale search with cadaver dogs had resumed searching the wash that initially flooded and the larger wash it empties into.
Besides the 13 deaths in Hildale, the same storm system caused flooding that killed seven people in Zion National Park and one man near Hurricane. The 21 deaths are among the deadliest weather disasters in Utah history.
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