Grant County plans to pass most coronavirus federal relief funds to businesses

Grant County will award the bulk of a federal grant for coronavirus relief to small businesses and non-profit organizations, county commissioners announced Tuesday.

A group of Grant County officials met last week to discuss and recommend a preliminary budget allocating $5.4 million awarded to the county in the Coronavirus Relief Funds Grant authorized by the CARES Act passed by Congress earlier this year, the county said in a press release.

The plan was approved by the Board of County Commissioners Tuesday.

The following allocation was the product of that discussion, but depending on actual expenses, the figures could change:

$1 million allocated to Grant County expenses

$1.4 million to Health District expenses

$100,000 to Taxing District and Special District expenses

$2.5 million allocated to grants for small businesses and non-profit organizations.

That leaves $430,700 in reserve to be allocated as needed.

The county decided to allocate the full $1.4 million dollars requested by the Health District from their grant funding in hopes that the cities will in return, allocate additional funds to small business grants within their jurisdictions.

“It is the opinion of the Board that the majority of the funds should be allocated to the small business and non-profit organization grants in order to mitigate significant damage to the local economy,” the press release said.

Pending the commissioners’ approval is a recommendation that these grants be administered through the Grant County Economic Development Council (EDC) who currently administers the application process for the county’s Strategic Infrastructure Program (SIP) grants. The EDC would develop an application process and work with a committee of community members from across the county to provide a recommendation for awards to the commissioners.