Cape County will help fund technology training program

Thousands of people in Cape Girardeau County lost their jobs — either temporarily or permanently — due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and while many of them have been rehired or have found new jobs, some could qualify for new “dislocated worker” training programs.

The Cape Girardeau County Commission on Thursday approved a $285,000 allocation from the county’s CARES Act fund to be used by Codefi, a Cape Girardeau-based tech development organization, to create and provide software-engineering and business-startup-training programs “for dislocated workers suffering from employment or business interruptions due to business closures,” according to Codefi’s funding request.

CARES stands for Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security and is a federal relief program intended to provide funds to businesses, organizations and other entities affected by the coronavirus outbreak.

“This money will be used for training workers who lost their jobs due to COVID,” Presiding Commissioner Clint Tracy explained.

Second District Commissioner Charlie Herbst said it is his understanding Codefi will use CARES Act funds to create a curriculum and develop software for the retraining programs.

According to the County Commission, the training funded by the grant will only be available to residents of the county who can certify their joblessness or underemployment was related to coronavirus.

According to the Missouri Department of Labor and Industrial Relations, more than 10,000 initial unemployment claims were filed in Cape Girardeau County between mid-March and the end of July.

In other actions related to the county’s CARES Act fund, the commissioners Thursday approved one new reimbursement request for coronavirus-related expenses and adjusted three previously approved funding requests.

The adjusted amounts included an increase of $52,135.91, from $247,864.09 to $300,000, for the Cape Girardeau County Public Health Center; a $5,596 increase, from $162,769.67 to $168,365.67, for Trinity Lutheran School; and a $1,526.17 adjustment, from $101,016.23 to $102,542.40, for the Delta School District.

The new funding request Thursday was $6,093.35 for Heartland Family Pharmacy, to be paid through Cape Girardeau Area Magnet, to reimburse the business for personal protective equipment and other coronavirus-related supplies.

“To date, we have approved about $4 million (in coronavirus reimbursements),” said First District Commissioner Paul Koeper, who is tracking how the county has been allocating its $9.2 million CARES Act fund.

Koeper said he expects more reimbursement requests will be received by the County Commission in the coming weeks.

“There are still a few things out there,” he said, “from county rural fire departments, the Cape and Jackson police and fire departments, we really haven’t approved anything for the county except for some EOC (Emergency Operations Center) expenses, and the Cape Special Road District might have some expenses for PPE.”

Herbst said he has been in contact with representatives of Cape Girardeau Area Magnet and has encouraged them to remind businesses they are eligible to submit reimbursement applications.

“Oct. 1 is the cutoff for reimbursements for PPE, at least for this round,” he said.

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