Stimulus award to Denver Post’s $50K bike tour goes unreported
NO ACCOUNTING FOR AWARDS: The Denver Post’s inaugural 2012 “Pedal the Plains” bicycle tour may have received $50,000 in Stimulus funds from Gov. Hickenlooper, unreported by the paper.
By Joshua Sharf | WatchdogWire.com
The inaugural “Pedal the Plains” bicycle tour, held in 2012, received $50,000 in stimulus funding from Gov. John Hickenlooper’s office, an award that went unreported by one of the tour’s major sponsors, The Denver Post.
The sub-award was part of more than $8 million in sub-awards from a $138-million stimulus grant from the Department of Education earmarked for education-related projects.
A Watchdog Wire search of Recovery.gov discovered the sub-award from the Executive Office of Colorado: “The Denver Post received a grant extension to support the staff and admin costs associated with creating an Eastern Plains tourism project.”
The money was awarded to the Denver Newspaper Agency LLC, the Post’s parent company, on Sept. 22, 2011, but Gov. Hickenlooper didn’t announce Pedal the Plains until Jan. 12, 2012, in the State of the State address, and then in a press release. Neither the press release, nor the Denver Post’s own coverage of the formal announcement in April 2012 mentioned that $50,000 in administrative costs were being covered by federal funds administered by the governor’s office. Instead, the credit is given to Hickenlooper’s office for “support” and to the Denver Post and Viaero Wireless for sponsoring the event.
