Fledgling nonprofits take note: Summit County is accepting 2008 grant applications for Recreation, Arts and Parks Tax.

Organizations with the primary mission of preserving history, culture, science and the arts can receive funds from the RAP Tax Cultural Advisory Committee.

Oct. 3 at 5 p.m. is the deadline to submit applications. A meeting at the Sheldon Richins Building auditorium will help guide applicants through the process, said Tom Fey, a spokesman for the RAP Tax board.

The meeting in the Snyderville Basin is scheduled Sept. 9 at 4 p.m.

To receive funds groups need several years of financial history.

“The county wants to make sure that public money goes to organizations that are stable,” Fey said in a telephone interview. “They don’t want money to flow to an organization that is a startup. They want them to have some history before they get RAP Tax funds.”

The county’s Web site has the grant applications at www.summitcounty.org.

“The procedure is going to be the same as in past years but we always seem to have people with questions,” said Fey, encouraging groups to attend Tuesday’s meeting. “We’re getting more participation from organizations in the east and the north part of the county than in the past. When this started up almost all of the organizations that got money were headquartered in Park City People in other parts of the county have realized that it exists and the money has been spread more broadly as a result.”

Mostly the same groups apply for the funds each year, Fey said.

“I think last year we had three new organizations that had a request,” he added.

The grants come from county sales tax and have funded nonprofits to the tune of nearly $3.3 million. About $712,000 was doled out in 2007.

Religious groups, schools and individuals cannot receive RAP Tax funding. Grant applications can be mailed to Anita Lewis at P.O. Box 128, Coalville Utah 84017. Applications are also accepted at the County Courthouse at 60 N. Main in Coalville and the Sheldon Richins Building at Kimball Junction.

Contact Lewis for more information at 615-3220.