County Commission Awards First Round of CARES Funds

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With as much as a quarter of a million dollars in federal aid available in Round 1 of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES) funds to be disseminated by the Scotland County Commission, the initial disbursements were  bit spares, as only two funding requests were received by the county, resulting in less than $35,000 of federal reimbursements to the Scotland County Health Department and the City of Memphis.

The City of Memphis was approved for $4,449.29 in reimbursement related to costs of materials directly related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Scotland County Health Department was approved for a total of $28,492.24 in CARES funding. That figure included $16,852.47 for payroll expenses, and $1,704.43 in compliance related expenses and $9,935.34 in public health costs. The Health Department had sought $19,073.65 in public health cost reimbursements, but roughly $9,000 of the costs were not approved by the county commission.

In May, Missouri Governor Mike Parsons had announced that Scotland County had been awarded $575,102 in CARES funding.

Round 1 of the funding process opened on June 1st, with applications being accepted by the Scotland County Commission, the acting administrative body for the federal funds.

The County allocated 50% of the CARES Act funds for the first round of award decisions. Applications for the first round of funding were due by June 26.

The federal funds are restricted for use to cover necessary expenditures incurred due to the public health emergency with respect to the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). They cannot be used to account for expenditures budgeted for prior to March 27, 2020.

Initially, for the first round of funding, local governments, public entities, political subdivisions and non-profits were eligible to submit an application, based on requests for reimbursement of eligible expenses or costs already incurred during the period March 1 through May 31, 2020.

The County did not consider awarding funds to meet payroll expenses, except for unbudgeted and unanticipated overtime costs or payroll expenses related to hiring new employees which were unbudgeted and unanticipated in order to respond to the COVID-19 public health emergency.

Round Two of the application process opened July 8th. With more than $540,000 remaining in available funds, the county is anticipating a larger number of applications.

“We have already seen a  lot more interest in round two, with a wider variety of entities working on applications for the aid,” said County Clerk Batina Dodge.

 The process will expand in round two to make more projects eligible for consideration.

Applications for the second round of funding may be based on: (1) requests for reimbursement of eligible expenses or costs already incurred during the period March 1 through June 30, 2020; and/or (2) requests for an award of funds for eligible expenses or costs to be incurred by the applicant once an award decision is made.  An applicant may submit an application for one or both of these funding approaches.  Requests must satisfy the requirements of the CARES Act and Treasury guidance.

Applications for the second round of funding are due on July 31, 2020  and the county anticipates making award decisions on or before August 13.  The application is available through the County Clerk’s office, or a fillable application can be found at https://www.scotlandcountymo.org. Questions regarding the application process may be directed to the County Clerk, (660) 465-7027.

Depending upon the number of applications received and amount of funds awarded in this round of funding, the County anticipates potential additional rounds of funding.