More than $530,000 in grants from gaming at Eagle Mountain Casino near Porterville is available to government organizations and special districts in Tulare County.

“We’re looking for things affected by the casino” said Jeff Forbes, a county Board of Supervisors spokesman who also is a staff member of the Tulare County Indian Gaming Local Community Benefit Committee.

The group, headed by county Supervisor Mike Ennis, will decide which groups divide the money from the state’s Indian Gaming Distribution Fund, which tribes with casinos operating more than 200 games in California are required to pay into by law.

In Tulare County, the Tule River Indian Tribe, which operates Eagle Mountain, is sponsoring the grants for projects that have “a reasonable relationship to the impacts of their gaming facility” according to a press release issued by county officials.

The committee will give priority to funding law enforcement; fire, emergency medical, road work, public health, recreation and youth, waste disposal, water supply, child care, environmental mitigation, and behavioral health services and programs in the southeast part of the county.

Application forms and the criteria for consideration are posted online at www.co.tulare.ca.us/government/iglcbc/default.asp. The application deadline is March 18.