Cape County wrapping up CARES Act funding process

With just over two months left in 2020, Cape Girardeau County officials say the calendar and the county’s $9.2 million coronavirus relief fund should both run out at about the same time.

“It will be awfully close,” commented First District County Commissioner Paul Koeper, who has been keeping tabs on fund allocation requests and passing them on to the other commissioners for consideration.

The County Commission on Monday set a Dec. 1 deadline for previously-approved schools, businesses and other organizations in the county to turn in receipts for unbudgeted expenses related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Those expenses include the cost of face masks, gloves, hand sanitizer, cleaning supplies, Plexiglas shields and similar items purchased in response to the coronavirus outbreak.

The commissioners also set Jan. 7 as the deadline for organizations to submit reimbursement paperwork for the cost of additional personnel, such as custodians, school nurses and other staff who were hired as a result of the pandemic.

Cape Girardeau County was allocated $9,253,142 by the State of Missouri out of almost $521 million the state received through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act approved last spring by the federal government. The CARES Act is intended to help pay for costs related to coronavirus between March 1 and Dec. 30.

Virtually all of the county’s CARES Act fund has been budgeted based on reimbursement requests received to date from scores of businesses, schools, libraries and other organizations in the county. Some of the funding will also go to the Cape Girardeau and Jackson municipal governments, fire protection districts and the county itself to pay for unbudgeted coronavirus-related expenses.

“We’re down to just the loose ends,” said Presiding Commissioner Clint Tracy. “It’s all allocated. We’re just waiting on the receipts to cut the checks now.”

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